Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
by Angrybadgerson
Summary: Running out of options in the face of the oncoming Grimm invasion, Ozpin turns to his last hope for Beacon's defense. An ancient monster, old beyond counting, wise beyond measure and powerful beyond imagination, enters the Academy, disguised as a student. Blacklight is back, and facing his final obstacle to become the ultimate life-form. Four years of school. Easy, right?
1. Deal with the Devil

**A/N The plot bunny conquers all,** **apparently, even vicious pre-exam schedules.**

* * *

"Ozpin, I would much appreciate it if you could tell me _exactly_ what we're doing here?!" Glynda Goodwitch all but growled at the Headmaster of Beacon Academy. The two of them were standing, completely out of place, at the large, corrugated iron double doors, of the many dark, damp warehouses that lined the docks of Vale.

Usually, the Headmaster would smile his usual, distant smile and say something to try and calm her down, but now, his knuckles were white around the hilt of his cane, planted in the ground between his feet. His eyes, usually unfocused behind the half-rimmed spectacles, were sharp and alive, focused completely on the doors.

"Ozpin?" The unfamiliar creep of fear crawled up her back as she watched the Headmaster more serious than she'd seen him in many years.

"Glynda", he began, speaking slowly, "If I am killed, you are to find Qrow, and he is to take over as Headmaster of Beacon. Am I understood?".

"What? Ozpin, just what is going-" She had multiple questions about _that_ statement, but he cut her off with a razor sharp glance.

"Am I understood?" There was no room for argument in his tone, and it was all she could do to nod. Silently, the emerald green eyes slid back to the door, and all was silent for a single moment, before he crossed the distance in a four swift strides, and then planted his boot into their centre.

Ozpin may not have been on the active duty list for Huntsmen and Huntresses, but he was still one of the most skilled Huntsmen on the face of Remnant. As such, the padlock and chain holding the doors locked were all but vaporised by his aura empowered kick.

The doors slammed into the walls with a crash, and then once the ringing had faded, everything was silent. Ozpin stayed very, very still for several seconds, before, glancing back at her once more.

"Stay close to me, and whatever you do, don't step anywhere where there isn't a light".

It wasn't a request, it was an order, and she obeyed it as such, almost staying on her superior's heels as they moved towards the lone light bulb, hanging from the dusty ceiling by a thin wire, and emitting a droning buzz that signalled it did not have long left before it gave out and died.

As they reached the light, standing directly beneath it, Glynda noticed something unusual. The warehouse was completely empty. There were no boxes or crates, only the lightbulb, and the dark around it, that seemed to stretch on forever.

All in all it made her very, very uneasy, and if the Headmaster's reaction hadn't put her on edge, then this kind of place would most definitely.

Human beings have an instinctual fear of the unknown, it was the reason for the initial animosity and fear towards Faunus, followed by outright racism when it became apparent that they wouldn't fight back. Darkness was one of those things. You could never know what lurked in the shadows, and as such, humanity had learnt to fear the dark from almost the moment of their inception.

Suddenly, she realised why they were afraid of the dark.

Ozpin hadn't moved from the centre of the light, once again as still as a statue, and she was about to open her mouth to demand an explanation once more, she froze dead still, hand still outstretched to grab his shoulder.

 **Well, well, well.**

The voice was the most inhuman thing she'd ever heard. A twisted mockery of a human voice. It snarled and growled through syllables and words.

The most disconcerting thing about it, though, was that it seemed to come from _everywhere._

Try as she might, she hadn't a chance in hell of pinpointing where it might have been, and the fear that had been creeping on her latched on, and only years of experience as a huntress stopped her from panicking.

 **What have we here? The little boy who dreamed of being a hero.**

It laughed into the darkness, and Glynda couldn't help but wince. The heaving, wretched noise finally stopped, and she could practically hear it's leer.

 **How's that been?**

"I didn't come for a reunion" Ozpin replied calmly, though his voice was terse and his face was stony.

 **Oh?**

It actually sounded pleased, and slowly, deliberately, a pair of blood red eyes lit up in the darkness, twisted by inhuman sockets into jagged slits of red straight out of a nightmare.

 **Then tell me, lonely child. Why have you come?**

Then the eyes were gone in the blink of an eye, as if they'd never been there in the first place. There was a whisper of displaced air, and the telltale scratch of something moving around in the darkness.

She felt helpless, stuck in a hellish darkness, with only a failing bulb to keep them from oblivion. If it failed, or their concentration slipped, the darkness would fall, and they would die. She could feel it instinctively even without Ozpin's warning to stay in the light.

 **And with another child as well.**

There was the sudden, unexplainable fear that came from the monster's gaze falling upon her. A hot lance of breath raked across her back, and she whirled in it's direction, finding only darkness.

Ozpin stepped closer, blocking where he could only guess it was currently lurking.

"I have an offer for you" his eyes were suddenly burning with a fire she'd never seen before, and when he spoke again, it was barely more than a whisper.

"Blacklight"

The reaction was instant, it howled in rage, and suddenly, vicious, barbed tendrils burst from the darkness, a sickly mixture of red and black, with a vicious claw on the end of each

Ozpin saved them both, with a slam of his cane, a glowing green shield of his aura sprang forth, covering them both in a protective bubble. She'd seen the shield stop a raging Boarbatusk without a single scratch on it, but everywhere the tendrils lashed, spiderweb cracks spread outwards, and he winced in pain at the feeling of his aura being damaged so severely.

Then the assault stopped, and the tendrils shirked back into the shadows with the slightest whisper of their barbs whistling through the air.

 **What do you want, Boy?**

All twisted mocking was gone from Blacklight's voice, replaced with a cold rage. Ozpin didn't hesitate this time.

"I want you to protect my Academy". Glynda took her eyes off the shadows to stare at him like he was mad, but the Headmaster didn't take his eyes off the darkness.

There was a silence, and then Blacklight began speaking, painfully slowly.

 **Oh really? And tell me, why should I do that?**

"Salem is making her move", if she wasn't disturbed by the headmaster's actions before, she was now. Salem's movements were constantly classified beyond top secret, and this latest information had cost countless lives to obtain.

Then she remembered just what he was talking to, and she couldn't complain anymore.

"She's made a mistake, she had pawns. _Human_ pawns". She couldn't even begin to fathom why that would be of any use, but the painful silence descended once more. The light flickered for a second, and she was afraid it would give in, but then it stabilized, and she exhaled a sigh of relief.

Finally, Blacklight spoke.

 **I'll be there.**

She would have been relieved, had the ambiguity of that statement not scared her even more.

Ozpin nodded slowly in thanks. The light flickered, and this time, it was clear it wasn't going to stay on. Ozpin glanced at it, usually stoic eyes widening in alarm, he broke into a dead sprint towards the doors.

"MOVE!" He thundered, and years of obeying orders suddenly snapped, and she blitzed after him.

The doors had closed since they'd entered, something she'd neglected to notice, to focused on the monster stalking them in the shadows. It didn't matter, with a flick of her riding crop, it was blown cleanly off it's hinges, letting daylight spill into the warehouse.

Something brushed past her back, and instinct took over as she dived for the daylight, rolling over, and coming into a crouch as Ozpin cleared the door himself.

Blacklight's mocking laughter followed them out, a new set of iron doors slamming into place to replace the ones she'd destroyed. Left with the echo of a monster's laughter, she rounded on Ozpin.

" _What was that?"_ She breathed, still trying to catch her breath.

He pushed his glasses up his nose, composure returning slowly.

"The oldest monster still alive". He replied softly.

"It's a _Grimm?"_ She all but shrieked. First of all, if there _was_ a Grimm, even a single onebut he shook his head lightly.

"No", his expression turned grim, "They're similar, but there's a difference".

"What's the difference?" She whispered, morbid curiosity driving her onwards, despite the underlying feeling that she really didn't want to know.

He fixed her with a haunted expression she'd never seen before in his green eyes.

"Grimm can die."

* * *

Ozpin was looking over applications for Beacon Academy. He grimaced slightly, he always despised turning down so many prospective huntsmen and huntresses, but the academy could only take so many before they were full.

He took another sip of coffee as he sifted through the large pile on his desk, before frowning as he reached a particularly unusual one.

The picture was blank, as was most of the description. There was no background information, no past accomplishments, or anything that would get someone into Beacon or even any of the Hunter schools. He would have written it off as a printing mistake, had the name not have remained, proudly displayed on the top banner.

 _ALEX MERCER_

He froze in his seat, sudden fear gripping him. It was late, but his office was constantly well lit, something most had written off as one of his many quirks. Only Glynda, who had left earlier, understood why every inch of the room was lit, and almost every shadow was covered by light.

He flipped the lone sheet of paper over, and scrawled on the back, in a mocking scribble, was what he'd been afraid of.

 _I PROMISED, DIDN'T I?_

His hand clenched around the edge of his desk. He should have known that Blacklight would pull something like this. He'd been planning to offer it a faculty position, or claim he was brought in for extra security, but it had _known_. It always did, and it had gone for the last option.

It was a student. IT would be indistinguishable from the sea of faces. The ghost in the machine. It could have been anywhere, anyone, anything. He grimaced.

Grimm were classified by letters. C-class were the normal, young Grimm. Stupid and generally quite weak, a half-decent Hunter-in-training could take down hundreds by themselves.

B-Class were the Alphas. Older, stronger, faster and smarter than their counterparts. More unique species, like Deathstalkers and Geists also fell under this category. A team of skilled hunters-in-training could take down one each, while skilled huntsmen like himself could kill tens alone before even beginning to tire.

A-Class were starting to get into the realms of most people's nightmares. They were old, fast and deadly. They were also highly intelligent, and as such some had learned to stay away from humans, like the Goliaths, becoming almost peaceful by comparison. The gigantic sea-bound Leviathans fit into this category, despite being dangerous enough to be S-Class, due to their aqueous nature restricting them to the seas.

S-Class were monstrosities. Ozpin could count the number of recorded S-Classes on his fingers. They were, fast deadly, and often walking city destroyers. Many murals they'd found had depictions of them, razing primitive civilizations to the ground like vengeful gods.

Once upon a time, many years ago, he and his team had tried to fight an S-Class Grimm. They'd won, or it was more accurate to say that _he_ had won. It had killed everyone except for him, torn them to shreds and it was only pure luck in discovering there's a whale there's a whale fishy cried lone weakness that he'd killed it.

There was a single S-Class Grimm present in the vicinity of each of the Kingdoms. Places like Vale had fairly passive creatures, and as such had been allowed to thrive. Others like Mistral had vicious creatures that razed cities for the slightest provocation.

Vacuo had once been a paradise, and according to history, Human greed had turned it into a harsh and barren land, indistinguishable from the desert around it.

That was a lie. It was to hard to bear that a single Grimm had torn through the ancient civilisation, and supposedly still slept under the deserts.

Equally, there was a single S-Class the dominated the sky and one that dominated the Seas. The uncolonised areas of Remnant were often left as such because of particularly aggressive S-Classes.

There was a handful of S-Class Grimm. Monsters beyond human comprehension.

There was only one EX-Class Grimm.

Ancient murals scattered around the world, from different civilizations that should have had no means to contact each other, but they all depicted the same thing. A humanoid Grimm, unlike anything they'd ever seen, battling other Grimm, Turning on it's brethren then vanishing.

Then they'd found the terminal, and everything had changed.

It was the oldest piece of functioning technology in existence, and it had gone through several hundred rebuilding programs by the best scientists humanity had to offer.

Eventually, they'd managed to extract the data contained, and they'd finally gotten the explanation they so needed.

It had many names. Blacklight, ZEUS, The name it was given didn't matter. It had razed an ancient, advanced civilization almost to the ground, but they'd created the recordings to pass on everything they could to help those who would come after them.

The information was simple. It couldn't be killed. It couldn't be stopped. If it wanted something dead, it killed it and everything else within a city-block radius. It could become anyone, changing it's face, body and voice to perfectly imitate any human.

In response, the ancient humans had used their most powerful weapon. Something called a Nuclear Bomb. It was a terrifying piece of technology, but it's design had long since been lost to the of him was thankful for that. The explanation given had mentioned enough power to level a city, then irradiate the surrounding area with deadly radiation, preventing any life growing there for another 1000 years.

Blacklight had taken the blast to the face, and stood up as if it was nothing, while everything else died.

Ozpin could only hope he'd made the right choice as he stood up and shakily prepared to return to his quarters.

* * *

Weeks later, on the Beacon Academy induction day, a young man, dressed in a leather jacket and grey trousers, hands clenched into fists and a scowl on his face, stepped out of the bullhead that had ferried them there. A grey hood covered his head, slightly shadowing his face and hiding his face from all but this who looked directly at him.

He grinned.

It had been thousands of years, but Alex Mercer, terrorist, bioweapon, prototype and monster, was back.

He had a goal, a drive for the first time in hundreds of years. Salem had made a mistake, she'd used human pawns, and human pawns could be consumed, their memories assimilated and used to track the elusive witch down.

Consume her, and he'd be the strongest creature on Remnant, bar one.

If anyone had looked closely, they would have seen his eyes glow crimson red, but as usual, no one did.

He smiled. And all that reward for so little effort. He had waited four hundred years to consume the Queen of the Grimm, so what was four more, protecting children from the very creatures that feared him more than anything in the world.

He frowned as he watched a blonde boy throw up his lunch into a nearby bin, and another blonde girl panic as some of it landed on her shoe.

He could feel a metaphorical headache coming already (he couldn't get headaches, or any other disease, for that matter. He WAS a virus), maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

He was pretty sure Ozpin wouldn't appreciate dismemberment of his students, but it became sorely tempting as he watched the girl hop around and the boy continue to throw up.


	2. Birds, Scorpions and Flying Teenagers

**Speedy updates for new things seems to be a running theme for me, but I'm just riding the wave before my half-term ends and i have to get back to the clusterfuck that is my school life**

 **Thanks for the nice reviews, as well. I know i've still got a lot of room for improvement, but it's nice to know that people think my work is at the very least readable.**

* * *

Blake Belladonna would never have admitted it, or even shown it in any outward manner, but she felt free. The burden of The White Fang, all the atrocities committed had weighed down on her wherever she went, which was rarely outside of one of the various safehouses and bases.

So when an explosion had resounded across the landing area, she had very nearly panicked. Explosions and bombs of any kind brought back too many bad memories, particularly of that last, fateful mission.

The book she was reading very nearly slipped from her grip, and only the slowly rolling vial of dust that stopped at her feet stopped her from entering into combat mode.

She sighed almost inaudibly. It had just been a dust accident, careless packaging most likely. Then the sound of yelling reached her ears, and she frowned at the snowflake symbol emblazoned on the vial.

A flash of white hair caught her eye over the crowd, and she stood up resolutely, moving silently towards the argument. When she did arrive, it became clear that the owner of the dust was a Schnee. That white hair was unmistakeable. A stupid packaging error indeed, she drily added, and apparently one that the girl was blaming someone else for, a younger looking girl in a red cloak.

"Hey, I said I was sorry, Princess!" Blake frowned as the Schnee readied another retort, and chose that moment to make herself known.

"It's Heiress, actually?" She corrected, cutting off the white-haired heiress before she could say anything in response, "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world". The Heiress' admission to Beacon had been widely publicized, and met with scorn and derision from her former fellows in the White Fang.

Oblivious to the derision dripping from her tone, she smirked triumphantly. "Finally, some recognition!" She declared in a tone that was far too arrogant for Blake's liking.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labour forces and questionable business partners". She finished, leaving the heiress fuming even more than before.

The white haired girl stormed off in a rage, and Blake's expression softened slightly as the red-cloaked girl attempted to weakly apologize for her actions. Nevertheless, she turned on her heel and left, ignoring the other girl's attempts to call her.

She sighed, pulled out her book, and continued to read.

Then she stopped, and went very, very still.

Faunus were more perceptive than regular humans, and as a by-product of their animalistic features, they had a natural fear of predators. Animals that would hunt them were met with fear, and a base instinct to run away. The effect applied to other Faunus as well, the more dangerous the animal they took features from, the stronger the effect on Faunus who took features from animals that would be hunted by them.

She'd never felt anything like this.

Pure terror gripped her, the kind only produced from being in the presence of an apex predator. This time, it wasn't just a nudge, doing little more than notifying her that the person or creature was dangerous. It froze her muscles, refusing to obey her commands to run, or even just get away from whatever it was.

Amber eyes danced across the crowd of students making their merry way towards the hall, but there was nothing. No indication as to what it might be. That was just plain wrong. The footsteps would be different, and even the smell could alert her to it's position, or what type of animal it was.

She smelt only blood.

Not three feet from the panicking Faunus, Alex Mercer smirked to himself, before turning and stalking away, indistinguishable from the crowd.

* * *

He watched the two huntsmen who'd come to visit him in his warehouse not two weeks ago with amusement.

Ozpin was the picture of detached calm, as usual, but he didn't miss the way his eyes subtly swept the crowd. Glynda was less subtle, and some of the sharper students noticed the way she watched them too intently.

Ozpin had likely alerted his entire teaching staff to his presence within the school, a risk, but a necessary one to keep an eye out for him. They were trying to beat him at his own game, one he'd played for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

When Alex Mercer plays, he plays to win.

He was disguised; taking a standard teen model from his repertoire of faces, with tightly cropped brown hair and blue eyes. A blue jacket and a pair of jeans completed the persona. They'd never notice the difference. He sat to attention, appearing to listen intently to every word they said, and he didn't move an inch when Ozpin's eyes passed him.

He frowned when Glynda announced that the students would be staying in a single room. That many people within a small space was dangerous for him, and had he needed to sleep, it might have posed a problem, forced him out into the open and left him vulnerable.

He didn't so it became an irrelevant waste of their time.

Once night fell, they wouldn't find him. The night was his home, stalking through it after the helpless wastes of biomass that were the human race. Had he not been bound by a promise, he would have long turned on humanity, razing their fragile cities and tearing their race to shreds.

Two things stopped him from doing that.

One was respect. The only creature to ever truly defeat him was a human. Captain Robert Cross had made him re-evaluate the power humanity possessed, and though he had ultimately won through deceit and intellect, rather than power, he couldn't begrudge him that victory.

He was a creature born off of lies and deception. His creation had been a lie, made by naïve and innocent researchers, believing they were developing a cure for cancer. His greatest weapon was deceit, taking the faces of those his enemies trusted and then stabbing them in the back, leaving them confused as they died.

Even though Cross had been consumed by the Supreme Hunter, the rise of Aura and dust had made him wonder, just how powerful would Cross have been with the power of Aura, and the energy of dust at his beck and call?

The second was his 'sister'. It was an ironic cruelty of fate that the monster wearing Alex Mercer's face, and believing itself to be Alex Mercer for far too long, had loved and cared for Dana Mercer more than the real man ever had.

When she'd woken up from her coma, they'd travelled the world. He'd been looking for a reason to believe in humanity, for some redeeming factor to counteract the atrocities he'd seen man commit.

It had only taken him fifty years to realise that the proof had been right next to him.

As Dana mercer lay dying peacefully of old age, she'd made him promise to continue to believe in humanity, that they would one day become something great.

He scowled as they filed out of the hall.

It hadn't stopped them, _his_ humanity, from nuking each other into oblivion.

* * *

Glynda steadied her breathing as her and Ozpin mad e their way back to their respective offices. She hadn't seen a single sign of Blacklight anywhere. If it had actually showed up, then it was doing an incredible job of blending in.

"Headmaster, are you sure… That _thing,_ is here?" She couldn't keep the slight shake out of her voice, despite a valiant effort.

"It's here", he confirmed sombrely, before stopping and turning to face her, "It's trying to play with us, make us guess where it is, _who_ it is. Be on your guard".

Glynda tried to take his words to heart, to believe that she could weather the fear that they were being hunted, preyed on like animals.

It didn't stop her from sleeping with all the lights on in her room, however.

* * *

Alex crouched on one of the academy roofs, hunched over and almost unnoticeable in the pitch black. The darkness had long since become his favourite place to be.

The dark helped cover his movements, and should he will it he could move undetected by any force in the world. Even those rare creatures, like the one he now hunted, that could see Aura, and detect foes via it, were no problem, as the 'Aura' he possessed was consumed from deceased huntsmen and huntresses, and should he choose, be turned off at will.

In the light, he was nigh on immortal. Countless years and countless battles had tempered the fires of his youth, tearing through Manhattan without a care in the world. Back then; he had been hurt, almost killed on several occasions.

Time had taught him patience.

The willingness to wait for as long as was needed to achieve what he wanted, to assure victory before striking from the shadows with lethal precision. Of all the abilities he'd stolen from consumed foes, all the souls trapped screaming within him, it was amusing to him that the greatest asset he'd ever gained had been of his own creation, not adapted from another.

In the night, however, the world was his. Here he was god and king. The creatures of darkness themselves cowered where his footsteps fell.

One last hunt, and that title would be his in the daylight as well.

His eyes turned to the sprawling forest below the cliffs, enhanced retina giving him a perfect view of the world despite only the tiniest slivers of light being available. That was where the initiation would take place, if the Grimm stalking between the trees were any indication.

Even against the lowest of the low, monster even the humans could deal with easily, he relished the upcoming thrill of the hunt. They would try and flee as soon as they detected his presence, monsters cowering in the face of a greater monster.

They would never detect his presence, and would die confused, returning to the darkness that had created them.

He leapt to another building in a fluid movement, landing as softly as he was capable of to avoid smashing through the building. It had been so many years, but he truly missed the days when all he'd have to do was slaughter Blackwatch.

He never thought that he'd miss the tyrannical and shady military organization, and had they still operated, he'd have destroyed them just as he had last time. Yet when he was young, slicing through countless soldiers and tearing apart vehicles, there had been a threat. There was a risk in every fight, the risk that he could be slain, or captured.

Humanity had gotten stronger since then, but so had he. There was almost nothing that could even challenge him anymore, and the last creature that had even the potential to kill him would soon be dead, assimilated into him like all the rest.

His purpose was to adapt, to consume, to _hunt_. Yet he'd adapted to defend against any threat. He could survive in space, at the bottom of the ocean (it had only taken the virus one thousand years and hundreds of dead sea-creatures to overcome it's hatred of water), in the pits of the hottest volcanoes, in the driest deserts and atop the highest mountains.

So what was he to do? Once the witch was dead, there would be nothing left.

His eyes turned to the stars, glittering tantalisingly in the blackness, and suddenly, he _knew_.

The combined knowledge of thousands upon thousands of scientists would be more than enough to create a ship capable of traversing the stars. Even with the atmospheric limitations of dust, he could use old world power sources. Combining the two technologies, and suddenly the universe was open to him.

' _Soon_ ' he thought, his eyes flashing the colour of blood.

He almost felt sorry for the Grimm Witch, along with whoever was puppeting her, if they existed. She wasn't just a target anymore, she was an obstacle.

Blacklight does not like obstacles.

What Blacklight doesn't like generally ends up dead.

* * *

He stood in a line with the other students, waiting for Ozpin to finish his speech. He had discarded his 'teenager' disguise, instead returning to his original form, hoodie and all, only appearing younger. It didn't really make a difference to him, but he needed them to know he was there.

Ozpin would recognize his favoured human form, despite the age difference, and judging from the wary glances Glynda Goodwitch was giving his hooded form, she knew as well.

He'd chosen to reveal himself for two reasons. Firstly to make sure they realised he'd acknowledged their bargain, and that he expected them to deliver on their side. Especially now he'd considered the future, he didn't want to waste any more time than was necessary.

The second was teams. A team would be useless for him; they would slow him down, and form connections he didn't need once he vanished after graduation. People who considered him a friend would look for him, and faking a death was so much harder than not having anyone important to care if you vanished without a trace.

Once he'd narrowed down his identity, Ozpin wouldn't put him on a team with anyone. The man may have been one of the best tacticians on Remnant, but his methods were loathsomely predictable. He wouldn't risk his precious students for anything.

He got a few strange glances from other students as they noticed his lack of a weapon, had they been more stupid, they might have snickered and whispered behind his back.

They didn't because while they were only human they were fighters, and they could see, from the way he walked and held himself, that he was one of them. A fighter, and a damn good one at that.

He wasn't of course. He was the apex predator, and if he wanted them to believe he was a human, they'd never tell the difference.

Even so, some of the reactions from his _'fellows'_ amused him greatly. One in particular, a girl in a vibrant red cloak, looked so horrified Alex might have thought he'd killed her whole family right in front of her.

As the students began to launch into the forest, he ignored the weak questioning of the blonde boy who'd been throwing up after the bullhead ride. He scowled. If he was weak, the boy would die. It was his fault for attempting something he wasn't ready for.

His pad activated and Alex jumped with it, the extra momentum he provided himself to soar high above the other students. He didn't even glide, as gravity began to pull him to a stop at the top of his arc.

He didn't fall graceful, grace was beneath him. He was ZEUS, king of the gods, the sky was his domain, and gravity couldn't hurt him no matter how hard it tried. He saw the other students disappear into the trees, and then dropped, the ripping air tearing across his body as he plummeted into the tree line, careless for any stray branches in his path.

He slammed into the ground with the force of a runaway freight train, solid earth splintered under his weight, as did, to his pleasant surprise, a canine skull. He stood up slowly from his crouch, letting the dust settle as he wrenched his foot out of the Beowulf he'd hit.

The rest of the pack was around him, frozen almost comically not in surprise, but in fear. One even _whimpered_. He looked around them, and they remained stock still, not daring to move.

One broke the formation, turning on its heel and preparing to bound away as fast as it could possible move.

It got a single step before the tendril like whipfist skewered it, tearing through its chest with a yowl of pain. He flicked his arm upwards, the whipfist tearing through the top of it's body and leaving it in a brutalised mess on the floor, slowly dissolving back into the darkness it had come from.

Nothing moved for another second, only the tearing noise of the whipfist dragging through the earth back to its owner's arm.

Then they moved, running from a battle they had no hope of winning.

Blacklight chased them, and they _screamed_.

* * *

"The last pair has been formed, sir", Glynda Goodwitch informed her superior, taping at her scroll to pull up the surveillance footage of the event. "Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy… can't possibly imagine those two getting on. Still he's probably better off than Miss Nikos…"

Ozpin made vaguely affirmative noise, staring at his own scroll with interest.

"As for our… guest, he still hasn't shown up on any cameras, my guess is he's purposely avoiding-"

Then a resounding scream, one that didn't sound quite human, echoed across the forest and Glynda's eyes widened in alarm. She quickly checked her scroll, flicking through the cameras that showed each of the students.

"Ozpin, all of the students are accounted for, do-" This time Ozpin himself cut her off.

"That wasn't a student" He broke in, eyes no longer fixed on the scroll, instead on the forest itself. "That was a Grimm".

"A Grimm? What on… Oh". Her voice trailed off as she realised just why the Grimm, creatures born of darkness incarnate, were screaming.

"I'm afraid so", Ozpin confirmed sombrely, "The Grimm will try to run, and he will hunt them down".

Another scream echoed across the forest, followed by a peal of dark, mocking laughter.

Glynda shuddered.

* * *

Alex had taken a bit longer than he'd wanted to eliminating the Grimm, but he'd been having a bit too much fun trying to see how many Grimm he could kill with another Grimm before its corpse dissolved.

The record was nine, but there was always room for improvement.

It hadn't taken long to find the temple. The largest number of human thermal signatures were converging on a single location, albeit converging was a loose term as they fell off Nevermores, got flung in by Deathstalkers, and rode in on Ursae, but he had just been killing Grimm with another Grimm, and begrudgingly acknowledged he had no right to question their eccentric behaviour.

The godlike speed of his viral body had only been enhanced with the many consumptions of powerful Grimm and other creatures. It had taken a hundred years to master the process of consuming a Grimm, stopping the biomass he absorbed from decaying within his body, but he'd done it. He always did.

He blitzed through the undergrowth, not even bothering to dodge the trees that got in his way, leaving them splintered wreckages on the floor in his wake. The whipfist dissolved back into Biomass, leaving his arm identical to a normal human's once more. He went even further, a stolen aura was applied to his body, making him indistinguishable from a human even for a Grimm.

He couldn't go making a bad impression on the first day of school, after all.

As he rapidly got closer, he noticed something unusual. One of the signatures was pinned by what looked like Nevermore feathers, being rapidly approached by a rather large Deathstalker.

He remembered Nevermore feathers fondly. They were one of the first abilities he'd stolen when he'd gained the ability to consume Grimm. Using his biomass to create razor sharp projectiles was an undeniably useful ability.

He snapped out of his musings as the Deathstalker raised its tail and panicked shouts from the other students reached him. He frowned. He was supposed to protect them, after all.

He moved even faster.

* * *

When he burst into the clearing housing the temple, he was moving far too fast for the creature to react.

With the newfound clarity provided by a lack of trees in his way, he re-evaluated his strategy. One of the students was reacting, preparing to use ice-dust to freeze the tail, thereby saving her comrade.

What she didn't notice was the Nevermore bracing itself to rain down another hail of feathers on the pinned girl, shattering her aura and most likely impaling her along with her cloak.

His original plan had been to stop the Deathstalker's tail with his own brute strength, the react accordingly to any follow up attacks. Since that angle was covered for him, he took the second option.

As he reached the pinned girl, who had barely even acknowledged his presence, the biomass in his flattened hand sharpened, forming a tiny blade without any cosmetic change. He slashed downwards as he collided with her, severing the scrap of her cloak pinned by the razor-sharp feather.

He scooped the now freed girl up, and let himself relax. He'd done all that in the space of about half a second, his godlike reaction time effectively making the world seem slower.

With his relaxation, his perception of time returned to normal, the stinger froze in a flash, and he looked like barely more than a black bullet as the feathers thudded into the ground where he'd been a millisecond before.

He slammed his feet into the ground, carving up fresh trenches of earth a good distance away from the circling Nevermore and the confused and frozen Deathstalker.

"You alive?" he grunted, setting the beet red girl down. That was too much physical interaction for him, and had he been younger then there was a good chance she'd end up accidentally consumed.

"I-Uh…" The girl was clearly not good with words; he stepped away from her and scowled.

"I'll take that as a yes" He let his eyes flit back to the two creatures, who remained stuck on the ice and relenting their attack for the moment. He ignored the repeated muttering of "normal knees", as the girl tried to recover from her near death experience.

The rest of their little group ran over to the girl, scolding her for her carelessness. He nodded a wordless thanks to the one who'd encased the creature in ice, as if it had helped him.

The white haired girl, a Schnee, from the aristocratic way she carried herself and the whit hair, eyed him with an appraising eye, before looking at the rest of their little group.

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying, our objective is right in front of us". All eyes turned to the assorted chess pieces, before the red-cloaked girl nodded in agreement.

"She's right, our mission is to grab an artifact and return it to the Cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things".

The blonde boy nodded in desperate agreement, "Run and live, that's an idea I can get behind!"

Alex wasn't paying attention to any of their planning, and was instead looking at the circling nevermore, his head tracking it in a hypnotic pattern.

He didn't get 'enjoyment' from consuming things like a human would for eating food, but some creatures were more enjoyable to consume than others. They had a certain… _texture_ to them that he enjoyed more than others.

Birds and almost any other avian creature were one of his favourites. He wondered if he could bring it down in such a way that his new comrades wouldn't see him consume it. It was a particularly large on as ell, and it'd be a shame to pass up on it.

"Um, hell? Creepy hoodie guy?" The red-cloaked girl's voice brought him out of his musings. His glare must have been sufficiently terrifying, as she shrunk back a bit, "Sorry, but you kind of spaced out there".

He grunted in acknowledgement, and the black haired girl, a Faunus, one in hiding, if the bow covering her ears was any indication. She was different from the others. Naïve by his standards, but jaded for her age.

"Who are you, anyway?" The others had turned their full attention onto him, and while he wasn't unnerved, it was an unusual feeling to have the attention of so many people for a reason that wasn't abject terror.

"Alex Mercer", He jerked his head towards the Nevermore and the encased Death Stalker, "Can we save the introductions for later? It's coming back". The annoyed impatience in his voice spurred them into action.

As they snagged relics, ironically chess pieces, corresponding to what would become their teams, Alex knew which one he wanted.

He went to the head of the dais, and snatched the Black King from its proud position. He held it up to the sunlight between two fingers, inspecting its craftsmanship with a careful eye.

He smiled.

It might make a nice memento.

* * *

Moving through the forest at a pace that wouldn't leave his 'friends' in the dust was a painful experience for him. They moved at an impressive pace for humans, but it was nothing compared to what he was capable of.

"Get down" Someone commanded, before the Nevermore swooped over them, coming to rest on a tall pillar and giving a caw that nearly blew some of the weaker humans over.

He would have laughed. _He_ could do a better roar than that, without even altering his vocal chords.

The Deathstalker, having apparently freed itself from its prison, burst from the trees behind them, Roaring it's own anger and snapping it's pincers. Alex was having a very hard time stopping his laughter now. Sometimes the creatures could be incredibly stupid.

"Well, that's just great!" A blonde girl growled in annoyance. They were making to run again, and Alex wasn't sure he could take anymore of that painfully slow movement. So he did the next best thing. He lost his temper.

"I have _had it_ with this fucking bug!" he snarled at the gigantic scorpion in question, which for its part, didn't realise quite how fucked it was. He burst from his cover, charging literally headfirst at the Grimm, ignoring the calls of alarm, and one indignant cry of "Language!" (Really? They were all about to die and they cared about his language?)

The Deathstalker might have prolonged its life by about five seconds, had it attacked the approaching human with its pincers. Instead, it attacked with the yellow, wickedly curved stinger.

Alex grinned under the hood.

He caught the stinger, stopping it dead, much to the surprise of the other students and the Deathstalker itself. Then he gripped it at its base, and swung.

The gigantic creature, easily weighing as much as a truck, was lifted into the air and slammed into the ground, like some sort of gigantic, demented flail. Alex roared, smashing into the ground around him again and again and again, everywhere it landed it cracked the stone and dented the earth.

He paused his assault to look at the gaping initiates.

"WELL? DO SOMETHING!" He roared at them, apparently spurring them into action as they broke into teams, one splitting off to help him, and another going after the bird.

He cursed lightly as he smacked the Deathstalker into the ground again. He'd wanted to eat that bird.

He flipped the howling creature one more time, leaving it thrashing around on its back, the softer underbelly exposed.

"Now!" The blonde boy called and they leapt into action. Alex leapt backwards, so as to not get hit by the thrashing creature. They took his place, the flashing steel of weaponry filling the air.

The red-haired girl drove a spear into it, causing a squeal of pain, but no permanent damage. It stayed there like a nail, and before it had even happened, Alex could have predicted what was to happen next.

"Nora! Nail it!" Alex visibly cringed at the thinly veiled pun, as the hammer-wielder slammed her hammer into the hilt of her teammates' weapon, driving it through the creature like a stake.

A burst of gunfire from the green-clad boy's guns silenced the creature's mad thrashing, and slowly, it began to dissolve. They exhaled, and their leader turned to find the hooded boy glaring daggers at him.

" 'Nail it?' Really?" He asked, disbelief lacing his tone

The blonde held his hands up in a weak defence,"Hey, everyone else was doing it!"

As if on cue, the Nevermore swooped past them, his fellow blonde latched firmly onto it's beak and punching shotgun shells down its throat.

"I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUNGRY!"

Alex smacked his hand into his face with enough force to bring down an attack helicopter.

"Oh my god".

At least he didn't have long to wait for the battle to end. The red-cloaked girl decapitated the avian Grimm, rose petals drifting off her form. The others stared at the younger girl in admiration, and to the untrained eye, he was doing the same.

What he was actually doing was staring at the Nevermore behind her, silently lamenting how delicious it looked.

* * *

Alex perched silently in the rafters of the auditorium. He knew he'd have to go down to be officially accepted into the academy, but he wasn't going to give the huntsmen the satisfaction of thinking they had him at their beck and call.

One thing the seemingly pointless ceremony was useful for, however, was that he got to know the names of the other students.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team JNPR". He paused as the audience applauded. "led by… Jaune Arc!"

An interesting choice. The boy had tactical potential, but his physical capabilities were severely lacking. He had the potential to be a decent huntsman; he just had to put the work in.

The applause died down as they left the stage. Alex's eyes flitted to the only group of four that had not been announced yet.

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team RWBY".

Alex didn't even need to guess which of them would be the leader.

"Led by… Ruby Rose!" The girl looked a bit overwhelmed, but nevertheless happy.

The applause died down, and after two seconds the audience was silent once more, most likely expecting to be dismissed to sort out accommodations.

"Finally… Alex Mercer", Ozpin intoned gravely, and when he didn't appear, mutterings began to spread slowly across the hall. People looked around them, trying to find the elusive student.

Alex stepped off the rafter he was secured on, and landed on the stage with nary a whisper. The hall went dead silent once more. No doubt to them it looked like he had fallen from the sky.

He made his way forwards, until he was facing Ozpin. He watched him with calm green eyes, but the grip on his cane tightened ever so slightly, and he could feel the Hunters stationed in strategic locations around the hall tense at his appearance.

They were silent for a second, before Ozpin began speaking slowly.

"Your reputation precedes you, Mister Mercer". His head tilted slightly, "We were not sure you'd actually show up".

Ah, that was his game. Try to force him into the open in front of the students, and should he fail, which he no doubt knew he likely would, they would distrust him, and therefore stay away from him, keeping their chances of living a full life high.

Smart.

"Why thank you, Headmaster", he grinned, "I do try".

Ozpin turned back to the screen; one eye still focused on the statue-like Mercer, or rather, the monster wearing Mercer's face.

"You have retrieved the black king piece. Usually, you would be attached onto another team, as a fifth member". He paused again, "However, in light of your… unusual skill set, we have decided to make an exception".

"You will act as a one man team, indefinitely until a suitable partner can be located". The onlookers, particularly the Faunus, could have sworn the intricate red crest on mercer's back pulsed, like a twisted mockery of a vein.

"I trust, that this will not be a problem?" No image appeared for Mercer on the screen, no indication that he even existed, aside from the proof standing in front of them.

"Of course not". Mercer's grin turned downright feral, "Will that be all?" He didn't wait for an answer before leaping casually over the assembled crowd, easily making it over to the heavy double doors at the end. The crest on his back, crimson against the black of his jacket, glowed in excitement.

Four years, then he would be free.

He would have thought the sky was the limit, but as he left the building far ahead of the assembled crowd, looking at the twinkling stars, it would have been a lie.

A world away, the Grimm Queen's crimson eyes snapped open, and she knew something was horribly, horrifically wrong.


	3. The Daily Grind

**Special Mention to ParadoxicOrder8, who helped me with some of the finer points of the Prototype lore, as well as let me bounce ideas off of him.**

 **This chapter is the longest I've written for one of my stories yet, (pretty pathetic, I know, but I'm working on it), and I actually wanted to add another scene in, but it's been a stretch just making the time to do this and it's is all i have time for in between my hectic schedule.**

 **Also one reviewer has** **evilly, planted the idea that Alex's evil laughter from the first chapter is actually just Piccolo's laugh from TFS Dragonball, so enjoy getting that out of your head.**

* * *

 _Blacklight charged down the hallway of the base. His disguise had long since been discarded, replaced with the armoured carapace of his armoured form. Complete with the vicious claws extending from his arms, he wouldn't have looked out of place in a nightmare._

 _A group of Blackwatch soldiers came around the corner, weaponry trained on him. They opened fire, bullets striking him with precision born of countless hours of training. Blackwatch were the best of the best, and even in the face of certain death, they continued fighting._

 _All those hours of training, the blood, sweat and tears shed. The peak of human physical condition._

 _Before Blacklight, they were no more than ants underneath the boots of a god._

 _He split the first man in half, a vicious running swipe leaving him screaming in two pieces on the floor, his organs flopping out with a sickening splat. The other two didn't stop firing, and even at point-blank range, their bullets barely even chipped the bioweapon's armour._

 _The second man lost his head in a flash of razor claws, the empty stump spraying blood upwards in a twisted fountain. Finally, he seized the final man by the neck, lifting him into the air as he struggled. With an easy motion, reached out with a clawed hand to crush his head as easily as a grape._

 _His biomass was absorbed, healing the miniscule damage they'd done against him healed. He broke into a dead sprint once more, leaving the mutilated corpses lying in the now gory hallway; the flashing red alarms the only illumination for their corpses._

 _Finally, he reached his destination. A glass cage, strong enough to withstand anything a normal human could throw at it Bulletproof, airtight and fitted with no less than thirteen security measures. And inside, sitting curled up in a tiny ball, was an eight-year old boy._

 _The claws vanished in a rippling sea of tendrils, reforming and reshaping into two massive, rock-solid lumps of biomass. The Hammerfists smashed against the glass, and while it held up for an admirable period, it soon shattered, that side of the cube giving in almost completely._

 _He stepped through the gaping, jagged hole, the child looked up minutely, despite the fact he'd remained immobile during Alex's onslaught on his prison. Most children would be cowering or screaming in the face of the nightmarish armoured form, covered in the blood of the enemies he had viciously slaughtered._

 _PARIAH was not most children._

 _Alex stared down at what might very well be the perfect natural life form. PARIAH was what Humanity could someday become, a shining example of evolutionary prowess._

 _Redlight had been an artificial creation, made to be the perfect Bioweapon, capable of affecting only a single ethnic group, to eliminate hostiles while leaving one's own soldiers unscathed was a dream come true._

 _Redlight had evolved too fast; it had been made too potent. Within Elizabeth Greene alone, fourteen new strains had been produced, and the virus had irreversibly changed her unborn child._

 _Unlike every other infected, even Alex himself, PARIAH had never been Human. He'd been born something else, something more._

 _Being in this close proximity to him would kill anyone else. He gave off a constant stream of airborne viral particles. They surrounded the air around him, infecting anyone who came close._

 _The child looked into the blank faceplate, confused._

 ** _You... not… h-hurt?_**

 _Every word echoed in Alex's mind. As he talked, he transmitted his words through the Hive Mind, creating a haunting echo similar to Greene's voice, as MOTHER. His voice was raspy from disuse, and painful pauses punctuated every word, as if the talking was a difficult task for him._

 ** _I'm like you_**

 _He growled, voice inhuman and guttural once more. He mimicked the child's method of speech, but in reverse to PARIAH, he struggled to transmit his thoughts through the Hive Mind. It was an alien feeling, but not an unpleasant one._

 _He could feel the child's surprise tickling the edge of his conscience._

 ** _Like… me?_**

 _Alex reversed his hand, the hammerfists shifting back into a carapaced arm, still clawed, but now more resembling a human arm. He offered the twisted limb to the boy, now staring at it in wonder._

 ** _Come with me_**

 _With slow, almost painful movements, the boy crawled onto all fours, and then slowly reached a hand out in an attempt to grasp the armoured limb. Blacklight knelt down on one knee, bringing his hand closer to the struggling child._

 ** _Together, you and me are going to change the world_**

 _PARIAH took his brother's hand._

* * *

One could be forgiven for thinking Alex had slept in. he had five minutes to get to class when he returned to his room. The fact was, however that he hadn't slept at all, and had absolutely no preparations of any kind to make. He did not need to wash) and he did not even need to get changed, since the 'clothes' he wore were actually just manipulated biomass, imitating clothing like the rest of his body imitated a human.

He stepped into the corridor from an admittedly spacious room with a sigh. All the information he'd 'learn' here would be something he knew, likely better than the teachers who taught them.

He was idly wondering if Ozpin considered his teaching staff expendable, and he could get away with consuming one or two, when something smacked into him with enough force to send him tumbling over.

Rather it would have, had Alex not been literally immovable, and as such bounced off with an 'oof'

He barely even noticed the first impact, but four in a row was enough to catch his attention, and he turned his head in mild annoyance to look at what had bothered him.

Instead, he saw four teenage girls lying in a pile on the floor.

He blinked.

Had they run into him? Had they all run into him? How? Why? Was it even physically possible for them to have so little spatial awareness that they hadn't noticed each other hitting him?

After a second of confusion, he came to a consensus, the first on had run into him, and then, caused a chain reaction that somehow ended up with all of them on the floor.

"No Dad, Zwei isn't in the oven" The blonde one, Yang, he remembered, mumbled, and Alex, for the first time in a very long time, had absolutely no idea what to do.

The first one to snap out of their self-inflicted daze was the red one, Ruby, shaking the stars out of her eyes, and looking up at what they'd hit.

"Ah! It's you! The hoodie guy!" She pointed a finger at him, and apparently snapped two of the others out of their stupors. Yang remained on the floor, still spinning in a hypnotic movement, and muttering something unintelligible.

"Hello. I did not get a chance to introduce myself before. I am Weiss Schnee, and I offer you profuse thanks for saving my partner". Autopilot took over, taking knowledge from one of the many aristocratic figures he'd consume over the years; he took her offered hand and shook it lightly, eyebrows curling up in amusement.

"Charmed. Alex Mercer". They appeared to have forgotten he'd introduced himself in the initiation, and had been introduced to the school by the Headmaster again.

That, or his new nickname was 'hoodie guy', and if it was, he could no longer guarantee their safety.

Once, many years ago, a Blackwatch officer had decided it would be hilarious to use Blackwatch technology to monitor all calls on Manhattan for the trigger phrase 'Corpselike Hoodie Bastard' in a misguided attempt to find him.

He had been suitably aggrieved when, after walking down the street and, for once, not slaughtering its occupants, someone had called the Blackwatch hotline and reported a 'Corpselike Hoodie Bastard', walking down the street.

He had been so annoyed, that he spent the next week hunting down the Blackwatch officer who'd made the call, and then setting the building he was in, along with millions of dollars of military surveillance equipment, on fire.

It was all futile; as Dana had found out anyway and laughed so hard he was worried she'd collapse from lack of oxygen.

"Not to rain on your parade, but isn't class starting at about now?" To prove his point, team JNPR rushed past them, causing their young leader to yelp in surprise, snag the blonde by the scruff of the neck, and drag her away in an impressive show of strength for someone so small.

"Thank you again!" She called, as she and her team disappeared round a corridor.

Well, Alex thought, they were certainly lively.

* * *

If there was one piece of technology Alex missed, it was helicopters. Sure, the alternative, the Bullhead VTOL aircraft, was both more efficient and tougher than the helicopter, but it just wasn't the same to throw things, specifically living things, at Bullheads.

On the subject of throwing things at helicopters, he was going to build his own helicopter, teach someone to fly it, then throw Professor Port at it, because _holy shit_ the man was boring.

On and on he droned about his past exploits, which while the tiny minority of personalities in his web of intrigue who were listening noted were actually useful in a factual sense, if you dug through the theatrics, about 99% were genuinely begging for death.

His opinion of Ozpin sunk. Before, the headmaster had the dubious honour of 'Respectfully Intelligent Human', and had now been degraded (or promoted, depending on your point of view) to 'Tyrannical Sorcerous Dictator'. No sane man hired someone like this.

He wondered if Port had considered a career in torture and interrogation. Perhaps he'd done that before he'd retired, because he was fairly certain that some of the more weak-minded students who weren't asleep were genuinely dying.

He put his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head, and tried in vain to get as comfortable as possible in the face of all consuming boredom. After two seconds, he gave up, flipped out his small paper notebook, and began to draw.

Rather than aimless scribbles like the other students pretending to be taking notes were drawing, he began drawing blueprints. An engine began to take shape, components he'd need and a rough calculation of the thrust it would be capable of producing, how much fuel he'd need, and countless other equations.

It was, quite literally, rocket science.

He felt the professor approaching long before he made himself known. He made no effort to hide what he was doing, and even if the professor called him out on his lack of attention, he could recite the man's every word since he'd begun speaking, should he so desire.

"Mister Mercer, what might you be doing?" The man's moustache _wriggled_ , and Alex, someone who tore people apart and then ate them on a daily basis, found himself mildly disturbed.

"Listening to your… _illuminating_ lecture, of course, Professor" He drawled, barely regarding the professor and instead continuing to sketch, the engine was further coming into place, and now he needed to make sure that it would run in zero-gravity, as well as consider the possibility of damages, and how easily it could be repaired within a zero-gravity environment.

"While your knowledge of propulsion technology is remarkable, I feel that notes on the subject at hand would be more productive". Without a word, Alex flipped the page, the notes he'd taken down as soon as the professor had begun to talk about the current subject, Beowolves. He'd killed so many of them, he knew all of their weaknesses, and one or two that didn't exist unless you were a six-foot tall viral monstrosity with a sword for an arm.

The man paused for a second, before nodding, "Very good, Mister Mercer", with that he moved back to the front of the class, launching back into his tale and leaving a class confused as to just what had happened.

By the time class had ended, Alex had missed a live fight between the Schnee girl and a Boarbatusk, so engrossed within his work. He had almost finished the calculations for propulsion power, and a list of ways to increase the output by at least twenty percent when the bell rang to signal the end of class.

He slunk out silently, staring silently at his notebook, as he puzzled over a way to increase the output even further. He didn't even notice a burly boy with orange hair try and bump into him, only to trip and very nearly go flying.

Humanity had reached a new level of stupidity the day they tried to pick on Alex Mercer, as if he was another school child to be pushed around.

You do realise that this guy punches tanks, right?

* * *

Alex quickly decided that, of all the classes he had to take, Combat class was his favourite. The chance to pummel his fellow students was an opportunity he refused to pass up.

His notebook was back in his hands once again. It had been several weeks, and his designs had progressed greatly. A chassis had been difficult to construct and had gone through several designs and was still undergoing a check for materials. He'd need a very particular alloy, and probably more time to consider just what he'd use, as well as apply the appropriate treatments to help it survive in the vacuum of space.

He barely even noticed a dejected Jaune Arc limp back into the stands, having been on the end of a vicious beating, both physically from his opponent and verbally from the ever-stern Glynda Goodwitch.

"Alex Mercer", He stood up as soon as his name was called, not taking his eyes off the notebook. About damn time, he hadn't been selected in weeks. It was almost like Ozpin was purposely avoiding selecting him, and changing the algorithms that determined opponents in combat class so they wouldn't include him.

It would have been such a shame if someone had hacked into the system, and added his name to the roster once more.

He stood up and stretched, his biomass mimicking the sound of joints popping. He began to trudge down to the arena, attention locked firmly on his book.

"Team RWBY" He paused only slightly at the announcement that he would be fighting a whole team. It was fair, he supposed, even according to their skewed perceptions of what he was capable of.

He was worth a whole team, according to them.

According to his own, much more truthful estimation, he was worth _every_ team, plus all the Grimm, and then some. Some might of called him biased. He called himself honest.

Still, he thought to himself as he hopped onto the arena, it was nice to finally have some sort of action again. The weeks between the initiation had probably been the longest he'd spent without any sort of violence in a long time, and rather than feeling refreshed, he was quite literally itching to fight _something._

The only downside was that the team he was facing was actually one of the ones that didn't make him want to rip their heads off. Despite their rather eccentric team members, they had not shown any sort of hostility or even aversion to him. He was someone in the background to them, and that was how he liked it.

"You don't have a weapon?" Ruby's silver e- hold up for a second, Silver?.

Alex almost burst out laughing. No wonder Ozpin had let her in early, and even with her obvious capabilities. He hadn't seen someone with Silver Eyes in a long time.

The girl's eyes shone with adorable disappointment at his apparent lack of a weapon. From the looks she was getting from her teammates, apparently she was the only one who'd forgotten he'd literally tossed a Deathstalker around during the initiation.

He bit on the end of his pencil. He was getting distracted, and needed to focus on this equation. The entire rocket would be pointless if the force put out wasn't enough to propel it at a sufficient velocity to clear the planet's gravitational field

"Do any of you know the basics of astrophysics?" He asked abruptly, making them blink in disbelief, "Anyone? No? Fine" he snapped the book shut; "I'll finish this later".

He'd apparently managed to stun even Goodwitch (particularly Goodwitch, he supposed, since she was the only one aware of his true nature), who stared for a second before opening her mouth to speak and getting cut off by Yang.

"What are you even doing in that book? You carry it everywhere". It was a harmless enough question, and one he saw no reason not to answer.

"I'm creating a basic prototype for a vessel capable of travelling a depressurized environment for an extended period of time".

She blanched, her expression confused and he sighed, "I'm designing a space ship".

"Oh… cool?" Apparently they didn't know what to make of that either, and he sighed and raised his fists.

"Aren't we meant to be fighting?" Another second passed before they snapped out of their confusion, unfurling all manner of weapons that would have once been considered outlandish, but now were the norm.

If it came down to it, he could use Musclemass, which would increase his combat capabilities without deforming him in some sort of horrific manner, but he highly doubted he'd need it. His enhanced physical capabilities would be more than enough for this fight.

An Aura bar showed up for him, but there was a blank portrait where it should have showed his face, once again. It wasn't his own aura, of course, and should he will it, he could even call upon this particular person's semblance.

He wouldn't, however. It would draw suspicion as to the nature of his superhuman strength, and he was content to let the rest of the students believe his semblance was super-strength.

"Begin!" Goodwitch had apparently recovered from the indignation of being cut off, and signalled the beginning of the match.

They exploded into movement.

* * *

Ruby vanished in a blur of rose petals, and he didn't even have to turn to see she'd moved behind him. The scythe came down diagonally, spinning in a whirlwind of death.

Alex stepped backwards calmly to avoid the blade, and then surged forwards once it passed. He shoved his hands forwards with such force that the air warped into an attack, and without even laying a finger on her, the girl went flying backwards.

He dropped into a predatory crouch as the katana like blade of Blake's weapon whistled through the space his head had been. He spun, his leg kicking out in a textbook leg-sweep. The Faunus girl was taken by surprise, not expecting him to react so quickly, and as such wasn't fast enough to react to his attack.

The sweep blew her horizontally into the air, leaving her open to a follow-up punch. She brought her weapon up to block, but still lost a good chunk of her Aura from the sheer force of the blow. She flew backwards much more painfully than her teammate, smashing into the approaching Schnee girl and sending the two of them tumbling with a surprised yelp.

Ruby flipped over in the air, skidding to halt and covering the distance he'd made between them in another burst of rose petals, just as the blonde brawler reached him. A two-directional attack, from either side.

He knew they weren't stupid enough to hit each other should he move fast enough, and since he was pulling his punches and not trying to collapse their ribcages with a single punch (something he was more than capable of doing, Aura or no), he was forced on the defensive.

He leapt backwards to avoid the scythe blade once more, leaning to the side to avoid the vicious straight aimed at his face as he did. The scythe slammed into the ground, the razor sharp tip embedding itself in the solid floor.

He stepped forwards and planted a solid kick into the weapon, sending it and it's wielder spinning as he blocked a hook from Yang, and brought his knee up to block the follow-up shin kick. He retaliated with a lightning fast jab into her solar plexus, sending her staggering back a few steps as he jumped over the spinning scythe trying to take out his legs.

He lunged forwards into a flying kick mid-air, kicking into the red-cloaked girl and sending her bouncing across the floor as her two teammates rushed to fill the space she'd vacated. Alex flipped with the momentum gained from his kick, and with a bit of subtle biomass manipulation, slammed into the ground.

Affectionately nicknamed the 'Air Stomp', the attack's resulting shockwave, similar to what you'd see should you decide to drop a dump truck from a five story building, created a large enough shockwave to blow all his opponents away from him once more, as well as create a sizeable depression in the arena floor.

They flipped mid-air to land upright, and he took the time to check the Aura bars. They'd all taken moderate amounts of damage, easily putting them all but the Schnee girl who's only been hit by one of her teammates, into the yellow. He, on the other hand, had taken only a miniscule amount, likely from when he blocked Yang's kick, but that would be about it.

Pulling his punches was not something he enjoyed, but it was a necessary evil. He needed to be known as a skilled fighter, but not anything too outlandish that would draw unwanted attention towards him. In all honesty, he didn't really care about the attention, but he really _really_ didn't want to have to deal with another Cult dedicated to worshipping him.

He charged forwards, covering the distance with a speed that alarmed them, as soon as he got close enough, he launched into a perfectly executed flying kick, only to slam into an intricate Glyph, courtesy of the Schnee girl. He cursed under his breath as the other three surrounded him.

So he jumped.

He pushed off without even a second's preparation, and still sent himself soaring high over the glyph that blocked his path to the white themed girl. He flipped head over heels into a vicious downwards punch. Another Glyph sprung up to block him, but this time, he put more power into his attack, letting a little more of his true strength shine through.

He punched, and the Glyph, a projection of the girl's very soul taken form, _shattered._

He smashed through it like it was nothing, slamming into the ground so hard the entire arena shook from the impact. Weiss stumbled, and he brought his fist round into what would look like a punch with all his strength behind it.

It wasn't, of course, but the effect could certainly make them believe that. The girl soared through the air, and even as Goodwitch made an effort to slow her down using her semblance, she still hit the shimmering barrier surrounding the arena hard. Not hard enough to cause any serious damage, but enough to shake her up a bit.

A quick glance at the aura meters confirmed her removal, with only a tiny sliver of Aura left as well. Good, it would have looked suspicious had she lost all of her aura in that single punch, and had he underestimated her resilience, she could have suffered permanent damage he did not want to have to explain.

He pushed the offensive, charging the closest one to him. Blake barely had time to react as he slammed into her body with the force of a runaway freight train, only for that body to vanish. Some sort of cloning semblance? An interesting development. The clones appeared to be solid in nature, but otherwise rather fragile. He filed away that information for later.

The blonde mad a charge of her own as he skidded to a halt. She was undoubtedly skilled at Close-Quarters Combat, but she'd never be able to beat thousands of years of experience combined with the experience of millions of minds.

He blocked the hook she sent at him, driving his knee upwards into her stomach. He tried to follow up with a roundhouse to her side, but she blocked, bracing both her arms into the only defensive position strong enough to absorb the force behind the attack.

The slightest whisper of cloth on cloth was his only warning to the disguised Faunus attempting to sneak up on him. Luckily for him, that was more than enough warning. Unless the girl could have silenced her heartbeat and disguised the heat her bodily functions gave off, she'd never be able to sneak up on him. He leant to the side to avoid the diagonal slash of her blade by a hair, simultaneously blocking the straight aimed at his face. He countered, striking just before the girl's elbow joint to push her arm over and leave her open to follow ups, then kicked her in the ribs, sending her skidding sideways across the arena floor.

He rolled to the side as the rapport of the Sniper-Scythe rang out, the high calibre bullet whizzing harmlessly past him. Blake charged him again, but this time he had a counter-ready.

He punched her under the chin.

It might have been a fairly plain move compared to some of his other attacks, as well as a bit barbaric, but the first time he'd ever used the Uppercut Launcher on one of Greene's Hunters, all qualms had gone straight out the window and he'd never looked back.

As she flew upwards, he snagged her by the leg and flung her towards their red-clad leader, preventing any more sniper shots as the two of them collided with a painful whack. Dropping both of their already strained auras into the red, eliminating them from the match.

Yang was the last one left, and as she covered the distance once more, a shotgun enhanced punch ready to be introduced to his face, he noticed some differences. He hair had begun to glow, giving it the appearance of fire, and her eyes had turned from their previous lilac to a blood red.

' _A semblance. Some sort of Berserker Rage ability?'_ He mused idly. Semblances were truly unique abilities, and ones like the girl's could be truly useful to him should he consume them and isolate their abilities. Alas, he had made a promise, and the end-goal far outweighed the drawbacks of not consuming one little girl.

He ducked under the first swing, spun around to block the second kick, and then unceremoniously elbowed her in the face. She staggered backwards, clearly not out of the fight, but it was enough to drop her aura into the red, and that was all that he needed, the buzzer sounded.

It was likely a bit anticlimactic for those students actively watching from the stands, and not talking to their friends, but he didn't really care.

He reached into his 'pocket' (the pocket he kept his book in was actually just a hole he temporarily opened in his Biomass, then closed again) pulled out his now trusty notebook, made his way into the stands, sat down and re-entered his own personal bubble. Some of the other students leant over to see what he was doing, but immediately blanched upon seeing the complex equations and formulae scattered across the page.

He didn't blame them. Some of the equations he was using would befuddle fully qualified scientists, let alone the equivalent of high-school students, superpowers or no.

* * *

He had not expected his recently defeated opponents to come and settle around him, where they had most definitely not been before.

Their red-cloaked leader plopped down onto the plastic seat next to him, and leant over is shoulder to look at the notebook. He had no qualms with anyone seeing his work, and so ignored her in favour of continuing to draw.

The close proximity was bothering him, but Dana and her insistence on giving him hugs had forced him to learn how to stop his urges to consume any human near him. It had been touch and go in those early days, and required a herculean mental effort to ignore the ravenous hunger that made up his being.

"Huh" She said, "Is that an engine?" That gave him pause, and caused him to turn to look at her questioningly. It most certainly didn't look like an engine, and the girl would have to have at least basic knowledge of engineering to recognize it.

She giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head, and Alex's enhanced vision noticed the bruises she'd sustained fading rapidly, thanks to the accelerated healing Aura provided.

"Uh, I'm kind of a weapon nut", she grinned sheepishly, "and plenty of weapons have engines in them, so I know the basics", she looked more closely at the intricately drawn lines on the page, "You said something about a spaceship?"

That got the attention of the rest of the group, their attention now off the fight and solely on him. He nodded in confirmation, and Weiss frowned slightly.

"Judging from your apparently extensive knowledge on this subject, I trust you already know that Dust doesn't work once it leaves the atmosphere?" She inquired, one dainty eyebrow raised in a movement born from years of aristocracy.

"I know that, which is why I've been doing research on some alternative methods of providing power" It had been true even before he'd begun designing the ship. Dust was a finite resource, like Oil and Gases once were in the old world, and would eventually be over-exploited, as Humans were wanton to do.

The girl's eyes widened momentarily, before she regained her composure again, "That is… There are a lot of people who would pay a lot of money for that information, even if it is only hypothetical, my father's company included".

Ah, Schnee Dust Company, of course. They were one of the premier producers of the propellant in the world, so it was natural they'd both know about the rapidly approaching deficit of the substance, as well as the need for sustainable alternatives.

Perhaps he'd underestimated the usefulness of spending time at the Academy. He'd failed to consider the large amount of connected people passing through for training; the Schnee girl was a prime example. The SDC would pay in spades for this kind of Research, and with the familiarity to the girl, it would be a simple matter to get a job as a researcher in the companies' R and D department.

"So wait a second, you're a scientist?" Yang, the blonde one, was still rubbing her nose from his final attack, and didn't look all too happy with the way he'd ended it. He nodded in affirmation.

"And all you want to do is build a spaceship?" Ruby added in, looking confused. He nodded hesitantly, not fully sure as to where they were going with this train of conversation.

"Yes, that's correct. Although I'm not a scientist yet" A lie. Even the original Alex Mercer had a doctorate, and he's consumed countless Gentek scientists in Manhattan alone, let alone the rest of his travels. He'd quickly learnt that often, without any sort of legal limitations, scientists could be worse than many a tyrannical dictator.

"Oh, wow. It's just… You don't really look like a scientist "At his questioning look, the red themed girl elaborated, "I mean, from the way you look and act, I would've thought that you wanted revenge for something bad that's happened to you".

He must have looked suitably offended, because Ruby shirked back, and the other two giggled. He was keeping a close eye on Blake, the disguised Faunus girl. He could hide his monstrous nature behind layers upon layers of aura, but in this close-quarters environment, she'd likely feel uneasy in his presence, no matter what he did.

Or perhaps she was just a quieter person. With the other loud and colourful personalities on her team, her generally quieter nature meant she would naturally fade into the background.

With the sudden lack of anything meaningful to talk about, their conversation quickly turned to small talk.

"So, uh, do you have any siblings?" The girl's voice was slowly losing its shy quality, and becoming more assured. He smiled ruefully.

"A little brother" He answered. Yang put a hand into her chin and nodded sagely.

"Ah, I feel your pain. Younger siblings are so annoying".

"Hey!"

They were siblings? That was interesting, considering they looked almost nothing alike. The geneticist in him was curious as to their family history. Were they full siblings, or just half? If so, did they share a father, or a mother? Them being half siblings, and one having a parent with particularly strong genes was looking likely. He would bet on it being Ruby's father or mother, whichever had Silver Eyes.

"What is your brother like?" Blake spoke up for the first time, apparently having gotten over her natural distrust of him. He'd dealt with Faunus before, and although they would be averse to him at the start, the overwhelmingly human characteristics he'd display would eliminate their suspicions.

"He's… he loves freedom. He spent the first five years of his life pretty cooped up, and so he's always looking for something new and exciting to do" he scowled even more, this time involuntarily, "which also means he runs headlong into any sort of danger. He can handle himself in a fight, but he'll never accept any sort of formal invitation to an academy, because it would tie him down for too long. And I know he can look after himself… but it doesn't stop me from worrying when he does something stupid. I should give him a call soon, actually. Make sure he hasn't gotten himself killed".

At least, that was what he told them. His relationship with PARIAH was complicated, to say the least. Not in the sense that they argued, or disagreed over anything at all, but in the fact that the two of them were so different from each other, in almost every sense.

Blacklight was an artificial creation, as was Redlight, both created for the sole purpose of killing humans, and spreading as much death as possible in the case of a war. PARIAH was different. He had been born from Redlight, but only after it had mutated beyond recognition. With PARIAH's DNA, a team of skilled scientists could cure cancer, as well as almost every disease under the sun. His immune system was like the genetic equivalent of titanium, completely unpenetrable.

He had once heard, from the memories of the high-ranking Blackwatch Commander who'd led him to PARIAH in the first place, that should he come into contact with PARIAH, the results could have been catastrophic. At the time, he hadn't cared. He'd freed the lost child, looked after him and taught him how to control his abilities.

It was only thousands of years later, with Bioweapons of humanities' own creation stalking them into oblivion across continents split and ravaged by weapons of mass destruction, had he realised that the Blackwatch solider might have been right.

Back then, the two of them had been almost the only creature that weren't Grimm around. The tiny bastions of humanity were scattered across the globe, and irradiated wastelands had made up the landmass. They'd worked together, using their own nigh-on indestructible bodies to absorb and contain the radiation. Then, the technological and biological expertise of countless consumed scientists had turned that wasteland into a veritable paradise, and to this day the vegetation was descended front those original, genetically modified subjects.

PARIAH was technically the older brother, having been alive for longer, but he couldn't stand the idea of someone who looked almost constantly like an eight year old 'big brother', so his brother was automatically designated to the role of the younger.

The buzz of the bell snapped him out of his musings, and he stood up promptly and left, missing Yang's approving gaze but catching the tail end of Ruby's fist pump.

"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this friend thing!".

AS he shook his head ruefully and disappeared into the bowels of the school once more, he couldn't help but wonder where PARIAH was at that moment.

* * *

"KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

"IT'S ON FIRE YOU IDIOT!"

"THEN WHAT DO WE KILL IT WITH?"

"ANYTHING THAT"S NOT FIRE, TAI! IT'S NOT HARD"

Qrow took a swig from his flask.

"BRANWEN! HELP US YOU IDIOT!"

He reached for his weapon, leaning against the edge of the table, held it up by the hilt in one hand, his flask in the other.

"Sorry, my hands are full".

"THE ENTIRE BUILDING IS GOING TO BURN DOWN AT THIS RATE, AND YOU'RE NOT WORRIED AT ALL?"

Qrow took another sip from his flask.

"I would be," He slurred, "But I am very, very drunk right now".

There was a water dust crystal, a burst of steam, and suddenly, the raging inferno was gone. The two men and an eight-year-old boy stared out at the burnt wasteland.

"Well," Taiyang Xiao Long began, "Who wants to explain to Summer why her kitchen is burnt pretty much to the ground?"

He turned to his compatriots, only to find the empty space they'd once occupied, and an eerily swinging door.

"Guys?"

* * *

 **So PARIAH is screwing around with Yang and Ruby's parents, and Summer Rose is still alive. Explanations will come, I promise.**

 **Next time, Cardin gets thrown through a wall, Velvet faints multiple times, and Alex begins his elaborate plan to throw Professor Port at a helicopter.**

 **Wasn't this meant to be a serious fic?**


	4. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

**To the anonymous reviewer who asked for an update as I was finishing up the editing for this, your wish has been granted.**

 **A/N: The little PARIAH snippet at the end of last chapter was originally meant to be a one off thing, but I enjoyed writing it so much that they'll probably continue until he actually makes an appearance in the plot.**

 **Speaking of Plot, there's not a lot here, this is more of a linking chapter, to get to Forever Fall, Blake's episode and other important stuff like that.**

 **In case you haven't noticed, this will follow RWBY canon for the most part, with little light-hearted skits interposed at points during the plot. Messing around with the bouncy and colourful RWBY characters and the dark and broody Alex can lead to some pretty hilarious moments.**

 **Also, it doesn't show up in this chapter, but I really hope you don't like Cinder, otherwise this is going to get awkward very, very fast when we get a bit further.**

 **Thanks for all the nice reviews, including one strange one about helicopter types or something, but they're all appreciated.**

* * *

 _PARIAH lay in the grass, feeling the earth underneath his skin. A small breeze brushed over him, rustling the large patch of flowers next to him. The light clouds rolled lazily across the sky, and the sun shined down, leaving the afternoon pleasantly warm._

 _"It's a nice day, isn't it?" Dana Mercer smiled. She was sat next to him, leaning backwards on her arms and watching the clouds lazily. Once she'd have been much happier inside, sat in front of a computer in a dark room, but PARIAH loved the outside, and she didn't have the heart to take that away from him._

 _The two of them were sat on the grass in a park, ignoring the people milling around in favour of watching the clouds, and lying in the sun. Alex stood a couple of metres away, leaning against the trunk of a lone tree, arms folded across his chest and head down in thought._

 _"There's… so much life," The boy mumbled. He'd spent his life in sterile rooms, where not even bacteria were allowed to live. Now he was free, and the natural world, with its countless ecosystems and organisms, had always been an object of wonder for him._

 _He could feel everything, from the tiniest chemical changes in the grass beneath them, to the worms shuffling through the dirt, to the people walking on the concrete paths that criss-crossed the field. Their heartbeats, the warmth their bodies gave off, he felt everything, and he loved it._

 _"You know, kid" Dana began, and he turned his head on the grass to look at her as she watched the clouds, "Look around you, look at all these people. They're happy, and smiling and enjoying their lives. Alex and me, we've travelled so much, and I've seen so many people who aren't happy, who're suffering everyday just because they were born in the wrong place, or because of the greed of another person. One day, I want to make sure everyone's happy, like this"_

 _She gestured round them, and PARIAH followed her arm, watching those she gestured to. Man and his young daughter, playing with a dog. A woman talking and laughing with two others. An old man and an old woman, sitting comfortably on a bench with their arms linked._

 _"But you see, I'm not gonna be around forever, and one day, I'll be gone. When that happens, it'll be up to you to carry on that dream, and who knows, maybe one day everyone can smile like that. Can I count on you for that?" She inclined her head to look at him, smiling slightly, and he stared at her in undisguised wonder._

 _Then the wistful smile vanished, and she broke into her usual lopsided grin._

 _"Ach, listen to me getting all emotional. Ignore that kid, being asleep for so long must have messed with my brain"_

 _Then the wistful smile vanished, and she broke into her usual lopsided grin, "Besides, someone's gotta keep the big lug over there in line when I'm not around anymore" She jabbed a thumb in Alex's direction, who didn't look upwards, still as a statue in the shade of the branches._

 _"I will"_

 _She stopped mid sentence to regard him with surprise, conviction shining in his red eyes._

 _"I promise, one day, I will" The conviction in his young voice was undeniable, and Dana grinned widely at him once more, reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair lightly._

 _"You done enough brooding yet?" She snarked in Alex's direction, and he scowled in a way that would have sent most people running for the hills in sheer terror._

 _"I do not brood", Alex argued weakly._

 _"Oh that is bullshit! Like 90% of your existence is spent thinking deeply with a frown on your face" She shot back, and Alex harrumphed and looked away. For a viral monster, he could act pretty childishly when dealing with his sister._

 _She clambered upwards, and stretched out a bit, before planting her hands on her hips._

 _"Right, I'm starving, and I'm feeling a McDonald's" She fixed the creature that had once been her brother with a glare, "Which means no threatening to eat the employees, even if they are assholes"_

 _Alex pushed off from the tree and trudged over to the two of them, his hands held up in defence, chuckling lightly under his breath._

 _PARIAH clambered to his own feet, and Alex leant over to whisper, "I'm totally going to eat them if they get her order wrong again" PARIAH giggled at his older brother, and Dana spun around with a suspicious glare._

 _"What was that?" The two of them looked away, trying and failing to look innocent, even as Alex murmured a quiet 'nothing'._

 _She turned slowly, her glare lingering on Alex for a little longer before she strode off, the two monstrous creatures tailing submissively behind her._

 _It was a long time before PARIAH thought about his promise again._

* * *

Alex's room was fairly large, or at least felt as such, due to its Spartan nature. Only a bed and a desk adorned the room, the carpet immaculately vacuumed and the bathroom unused.

So when the standard school-issued scroll vibrated on the desk, next to his spread notebook, he reached for it lazily and flipped it over to see what had bothered him, his permanent scowl etched onto his features.

An eyebrow curling up was the only external indication of his surprise at the contents of the message. A package, delivered to Beacon to be given to him, addressing him by name.

That alone narrowed the choices for a sender down massively. The only people who were privy to this form's name were his brother, as well as those people who weren't Ozpin and had seen the data stored in the ancient Blackwatch terminal they'd recovered. It wouldn't have been Ozpin, as anything he needed to give him relating to their deal he could have just done so face to face, rather than go to the hassle of posting a parcel to be delivered to his own school, one that he lived in full-time.

That left PARIAH, or one of Ozpin's compatriots, and since they would have to be reaching a new level of stupidity to be mailing things to the horrific monster from their nightmares, that meant it was probably PARIAH.

He seriously considered letting them burn the damn thing. The last time he and PARIAH had been apart for as long as they had currently, and he'd sent him a parcel, it had contained an old fashioned spring-activated boxing glove, primed to smack him in the face once he opened it.

Normally, this would have been a minor annoyance, however PARIAH had taken the time to specifically design one for him, meaning he'd just turned put in much, _much_ larger springs more suited to industrial suspension rather than boxing glove traps. He'd overestimated the power of his creation, and the damn thing had hit him with enough force to actually _blown_ his head clean off. He was fairly certain that had a normal human been hit with the prank, they would have been blown well into the stratosphere, and likely hit the ground very, very hard.

The post office workers had not been amused at all, and even less so once he regrew his head and smashed the stupid contraption.

Against his better judgment, he stood up, pushed his chair back under the desk, and made his way out of his room to retrieve the package from Beacon's postal collection area.

Acquiring the package was easy enough, and upon seeing it, his suspicions immediately arose once more. It was fairly large, and wrapped in unassuming brown paper and tied with a string.

Carrying it back to his dorm, Alex, half expected the damn thing to blow up in his arms. He didn't dare open it anywhere else, because at least from within his dorm he could effectively contain whatever weapon of mass-destruction PARIAH had sent him, and hopefully not get decapitated in front of his fellows in the process.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side, as he ran into the two teams he hadn't wanted to see.

"Oh hey Hoodie Guy!" Ruby called cheerfully, ignoring the twitch of his eyebrow at the nickname. It only took about five seconds before every eye in their little group zeroed in on the package he was carrying.

"Ooh, what's that?" The orange haired girl, Nora Valkyrie, he recalled, leant forward to stare at the package intently. Seeing no way out of telling them, with a sigh he answered.

"It's a package from my brother. I don't know what's in it, I was taking it to my dorm to open it". He elaborated, and Ruby's eyes lit up.

"Can we come with you?" He frowned a bit, but saw no reason to deny them that particular request.

"Yeah, sure. Just… watch out. The last time he sent me something the damn thing nearly took my head off" Actually, it had taken his head off, but he didn't particularly want to admit to his peers that he'd been decapitated by the weapon.

He ignored their confusion and, now with a sizeable entourage following him, Alex made his way back to his room, and set the box down on his desk.

"Heeeey! Your room is massive!" It was large enough to fit all nine of them into the room comfortably, and Alex supposed it must have been larger than their own accommodations. A waste, considering he used the room as nothing more than base of operations for his activities on the campus.

He set the box down on the table, ripped the string off with an easy flick of his wrist, and ripped the paper neatly down the middle, leaving the cardboard box underneath exposed. After a light deliberation, he unfolded the box, and was, thankfully, spared of a high-powered boxing glove to the face.

Instead, he found himself staring at a very large pile of video games, all on top of a dusty console. He blinked once at the contents, before frowning and pulling out the small folded piece of paper resting on top of it as the others leant over to look at the box's contents.

It was with more than a little bit of confusion that Alex unfolded the note, and his displeased frown reached a new low as he read the contents. A distinctly amused Blake leant over his shoulder to read the note aloud.

"Dear Big Brother, after much deliberation, I have decided to entrust you with my video game collection. It is most definitely because I forgot your birthday last year, and not at all because my housemates have a tendency to set things on fire. Enjoy!'" She smirked again before leaning backwards, "There's even a little drawing"

Sure enough, beneath the note, was a chibi caricature that Alex supposed was meant to be PARIAH, winking and flashing him a thumbs up.

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed as Yang began to laugh loudly, Nora, Jaune and Ruby dived straight into the box and began sifting through the games, and everyone else looked torn between laughing and looking distinctly confused.

PARIAH was one of the few constant variables that left Alex completely baffled. His actions had absolutely no coherence to one another, and were completely random. It was amusing in the sense that his brother often did stupid or seemingly senseless things, and dangerous in that there was absolutely no way for Alex to predict his movements, or actions.

One day, he could be fighting Grimm in Vacuo, and the next robbing old women in front of Atlas military HQ just to see if he could get away with it.

In terms of physical strength, Alex was confident he could beat PARIAH. While his own physical strength was impressive, his control of the viral matter that made up his body, and had done since his birth, would always trump Blacklight's.

Alex Mercer had once been described as a lateral thinker. When he'd died, and become the avatar for the Blacklight virus, some of that planning skill had carried over within his subconscious, allowing him to wage guerrilla warfare on the Blackwatch forces effectively, with the help of his powers.

PARIAH could outthink every military General on the planet, dead or alive. In terms of grand-scale strategy. He had inherited his mother's skill in commanding infected and other creatures. Combined with Blacklight's own physical strength, and PARIAH's incredible strategic capabilities, there were very few things that could stop them.

In the dark days before Humanities' second rise, had Blacklight been the only defender of humanity, it would have been likely that a single bastion would have been the only one to survive. For all his incredible abilities, he had one core weakness.

He was only one entity. He could not be in two places at once. He could influence events at a distance, through subtle viral manipulation, but it was nowhere near enough to fight off the endless waves of Grimm humanity was facing.

PARIAH had turned the Grimm against their brethren, and while he had not been able to eliminate them completely, he had been able to use the base form provided by the Beowolves to create his own breed of Greene's hunters.

Not only that, but he'd expanded his infected forces in a way Alex had never even dreamed of being possible, and he was certain MOTHER hadn't either, since he had never seen any of those types of infected before.

Watching his brother's infected fight the Grimm to a stalemate, Blacklight had been afraid. Afraid that his beloved brother would spread another infection, just like MOTHER had in Manhattan, threatening humanity once more with the taint of Redlight.

But PARIAH thought differently to Greene, and while he was more than a bit disillusioned with humanity, he had not counted on one, key factor. And why would he have? She'd been dead for over two hundred years by that point.

Dana had left such an impression on PARIAH, raised his opinion of humanity to new heights, despite vicious torture and experimentation at their hands making up the majority of his early life.

Humanity would never know it, but Dana Mercer had saved their existence more times than Blacklight could count. She had been rude, crass, and for most people insufferable to be around, but she'd left such an impact on the two creatures with grudges against humanity so deep they would have been more than justified for wiping them out, that she had stayed their hands and even made them protect and nurture the humans for thousands upon thousands of years after her passing.

He brushed those thoughts from his mind immediately. Dana was not a topic he liked revisiting, even in passing, and doing such would leave him in a foul mood until he could push it out of his mind again.

He looked up to see that the two-team leaders had extracted the console from the box, and were staring it at with shinning eyes. Ruby immediately rounded on him with the most impressive puppy dog he'd seen since PARIAH had actually disguised himself as a sad puppy to try and convince him to do something.

"Can we set it up? Pleasepleasepleaseplease". The calm, orientally clad boy he recognized as Lie Ren put a hand to his chin thought before Alex could formulate a response.

"We don't have a monitor to hook it up to, but I'm sure we can find one". Several of the others voiced their agreement.

He was actually in agreement with the idea. Maybe pawning PARIAH's belongings off onto others would teach him to send him stupid packages.

"Sure, just don't put it in my room", he would have to be an idiot to let them utilise his dorm room, the one base of operations he had for the academy and the only space where he did not have to worry about his façade, and thus eliminate any hope of privacy.

Nora perked up, "We can put it in our room! We've got space!" Ren opened his mouth to say something, but got his childhood friend's hand clapped over his mouth for his troubles.

Alex watched with mild amusement. It had been a considerable period of time since he'd truly interacted with humanity, and the humans of a half a century ago had definitely not been so... carefree.

He ignored it. The whims of humanity were not relevant to him. He was not his brother, and preferred to not go gallivanting around on absurd adventures. Still, the days when it had been him being dragged around on those adventures had not been disagreeable, and he rather enjoyed that time in hindsight.

Hindsight was the key word here, as he did not particularly enjoy getting eaten by no less than twenty separate species of Grimm over the course of a month.

* * *

"Well that was nice of Hoodie Guy to let us use his brother's video games!" Nora beamed, he usual sunny mood apparently having been brightened to new heights.

"He seemed pretty eager to get rid of them," Pyrrha added in, her eyes flitting occasionally to the unusually distant Jaune.

"I don't think he knew what to do with them. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to play video games in his spare time". Ren pointed out, a statement which none of them could refute.

"Jaune? Are you okay?" Ruby had now joined Pyrrha in her concern about Jaune, and the two of them were staring at him worriedly.

"Huh?" He snapped out of his daze with a brief shake of his head,"Oh, yeah! Why?"

"It's just you seem a little… not okay…".

He laughed weakly, giving a weak thumbs up and laughing nervously, "Guys, I'm fine! Seriously, look!".

All his declaration served to do was to draw their attention behind him, where Cardin Winchester and the rest of his team were harassing an older Faunus girl none of them recognized, despite her weak protests that they leave her alone.

Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Ruby.

"Hey, isn't that Hoodie Guy?" Sure enough the hooded scientist was storming towards the four bullies, exuding an aura of pure rage that immediately silenced the entire cafeteria, minus the four oblivious boys.

"Uh oh" Ruby mumbled.

Jaune couldn't help but agree.

* * *

The beginnings of an idea had been forming within Alex's psyche since he first fought Team RWBY, and now was the time to put it into practice.

Why protect the students, if he could just give them the means to protect themselves better? It was a flawless plan, in his own humble opinion.

He would upgrade the weaponry that could be upgraded, effectively removing those students from his area of worry, leaving him to deal with whoever's weaponry could not be improved beyond their current designs.

And he could do all that without breaking cover in the slightest. Perfect.

So it was for that reason he was making his way to the cafeteria, an area he did not often frequent. He did not need to eat, and as such never had a reason to visit the area before, but he knew the way nevertheless.

So when he entered the large hall, intent on finding his target, he instead was greeted to the sight of four large boys harassing an older rabbit Faunus.

He saw red.

The Faunus were his own masterpiece, an incredible work of genetic engineering, performed with the intent to preserve the animals that had so suddenly been endangered by the nuclear war that had ravaged the globe.

They had inherited enhanced hearing, near perfect night-vision and a whole host of heightened senses. He had dug deep into what made humans, human, and altered the very way they thought, meaning that they would no longer war senselessly, or commit the countless atrocities that humans had.

They were in every sense superior to humans, and Blacklight had known that. He had limited their reproduction rates, meaning there would always be less of them than of humans. A fair balance, with the Grimm acting as predators to further limit their population growth. Besides they were, for all intents and purposes, the same creatures as humans.

It had been around that time that the Grimm Queen, Salem had first surfaced, and Blacklight's time had been occupied with ruthlessly hunting her across the globe. He had not paid much attention to human society at that time, and had only really noted the foundations of what was today the Four Kingdoms.

Now imagine his surprise, when after returning to see the progress of his finest creations, expecting a shining city worthy of legend, Blacklight had found the occupants of Menagerie enslaved and oppressed by their human counterparts, viciously discriminated against and forced into slavery by the very values of honour and restraint he had programmed into their DNA.

Needless to say the headed a swift revolution, but the discriminatory scars still ran deep, and Faunus suffered discrimination from bigots like the four before him.

Their own biology game back to haunt them. Not waging senseless wars did not mean waging no wars at all, and the constant discrimination they still received in many places gave some Faunus more than a reason to go to war with humanity.

He knew it would pass eventually, just like the discrimination against coloured peoples once had in his own society, and it would a crime of the highest order to discriminate in any way, and it was only that knowledge that prevented him from… _rectifying_ the way human society functioned, preferably with a lot of bodies.

They were his children in a way, though not in any human sense. The closest he could describe it would be a scientists prized creation. He was defensive of any harm towards them.

The entire cafeteria was silent as he stormed up behind the four idiots. He had no time, nor patience for their inane bigotry. He would send a very quick, clear message that it would not be tolerated under his watch.

He seized the team leader, Cardin, he recalled from behind, lifting him clean off the ground by the neck. He scrambled and choked, confused and in pain, but Alex did not care.

He reared his arm back, Cardin and all, before hurling him at the window with enough force to create a visible shockwave in the air. Hair was blown around and several people yelped as Cardin Winchester soared through one of the glass windows lining the walls of the room, then off into the distance.

He turned to the now quivering three-man team.

"Anyone else?" He growled at them. They exchanged the tiniest of glances, before using more brain power than the entirety of the American military and turning heel and sprinting out the room as fast as they physically could.

"Tch, assholes" he grumbled, before shoving his hands in his pockets, stalking over to the table that sat team RWBY and JNPR, and plopped down next to a shell-shocked looking Jaune Arc.

Looking around the table, the others were looking at him with similar expressions of shock. He raised a single eyebrow and glanced around, noting that the rest of the cafeteria had gone similarly quiet.

"What?" He demanded. Someone coughed, and the bubble of chatter slowly returned to the hall.

"Right. Valkyrie" The orange haired girl perked up at the mention of her name, "I need to see your weapon".

"Magnahild?" She questioned, coking her head, "Why?"

"Is no one going to comment on the fact that he just chucked Cardin through a window?" Jaune asked no one in particular. Alex ignored him in favour of focusing on his teammate.

"I watched your last match. Your semblance is electricity absorption and redirection, correct?" She nodded vigorously and he continued, "I'm guessing that's what you use to enhance your strength".

"Really, anyone?" Jaune sounded almost desperate, and Pyrrha put a single hand over her mouth to giggle lightly.

Ren took a sip of his coffee.

"Yeees?" Nora sounded curious now, and leant in further to listen to him.

"Then I have an. There is a very good chance that I can upgrade your weapon. I won't bore you with the gritty details, but it involves passing an alternating current through the weapon on a constant basis, which shoul-" He stopped as Nora began groaning and swaying lightly before collapsing on Ren's shoulder. For his part, the orientally clad boy seemed completely unperturbed, and took another sip of coffee.

"Bit of a techno-overload there, Hoodie Guy" Ruby commented, lightly poking the still comatose girl's cheek.

Alex blinked. "But that was just a simple-"

"No offense, Hoodie Guy" Yang cut in, "But I lost you after you said you could upgrade the weapon. Speaking of which", She raised an eyebrow, leaning in slightly, "Can you upgrade the rest of ours as well?"

 _That_ got Ruby's attention, and Alex shrugged, "Possible, but it's an unknown at this point. The only reason I can upgrade Valkyrie's weapon is there's an obvious defiency in its design, namely potential for application of her semblance using the weapon as a medium. There is a good chance that there is nothing _to_ upgrade for many of your weapons, but I should be able to at least make them more aerodynamic".

He turned back to Nora, the familiar excitement before he began his work buzzing through his non-existent veins.

"Give me two days, and I can supercharge your hammer. Literally".

Nora grinned.

Alex prided himself on being superior than humanity, and in order to do that, he needed not only to be superior physically, but also mentally. The original Alex Mercer had been a genius, and with the thousands upon thousands of scientists he had killed and assimilated, he was unmatchable in every scientific field known to man, as well as some that weren't.

He moved at inhuman speed, assembling parts and removing them again with robotic precision. He did not like leaving jobs half-finished, even if it was for a huntress-in-training, and it posed a unique challenge.

Ruby had demanded to be present for the assembly, and he had accepted, provided she would be careful. He as dealing with enough electricity to kill a human being seven times over, and the smallest mistake would cost her her life.

Luckily for her, Alex did not make mistakes.

She watched with wide eyes, occasionally pointing out an adjustment or alteration, which he would either accommodate or argue. It was refreshing, in a way. The girl had some skill in weaponry design, and did occasionally provide a helpful input.

She was however, limited by human needs, such as food and sleep. He had not paid attention to it. It was the weekend, and there were no classes, so he did not have to worry about Goodwitch following him around like an angry badger after she had with the Cardin incident.

His apparent lack of sleep had apparently caused his peers an unusual amount of worry.

"Are you sure you're okay? Rubes says you've been working for like, at least a day and a half without stopping now". He was not looking at the blonde, but he could tell that she was frowning in disapproval.

"I'll live, this is more important" He grumbled, reaching for a small spanner on one side of the desk.

She was not the only one in his room. Weiss, as well as Jaune and Pyrrha had dropped by as well. Perhaps the Arc boy had come for some sanctuary, since Cardin had refused to go within one hundred metres of his room after he learnt who it belonged to.

"Still, this is an admirable amount of dedication to your work" The heiress commented approvingly. He grunted

"I try". He rolled the hammer over on his desk, now reassembled with a little more bulk on the handle, "There. It's done"

The four of them snapped to attention, leaning over his shoulders to look more closely at his finished work. Yang stroked her chin, staring intently at the weapon.

"Hmmm, you know, it doesn't look much different". He sighed, turned back to the weapon, and lightly pulled the trigger he had built into the handle.

It lit up like a Christmas light, brilliant curls of blue electricity lancing across the walls of the room from the hammer itself. They were harmless, but they still caused the others to leap backwards in alarm. As quickly as it had come, the wreath of electricity faded. Leaving a fairly normal hammer.

"Is that different enough for you" he asked, his tone carrying clear amusement. Yang nodded, a grin slowly spreading over her face. Jaune stared at the weapon with a mix of anticipation and… fear?

"I think" He began uneasily; "Nora is going to be very, very happy". Pyrrha nodded mutely, and Alex nodded, before taking a strip of rubber from the desk and wrapping it around the hilt, providing himself insulation from the constant charge it now carried.

He watched the now violently shivering duo from JNPR with alarm, and Yang and Weiss looked at them alarmed.

"Uh, guys? You okay?"Yang asked. Juan shook his head violently, and Pyrrha latched onto his arm for support.

"No, I'm not. We're giving this thing to _Nora_ ". Alex looked at the hammer on his desk with confusion. Of course they were giving it to Valkyrie, it was her weapon, and he'd designed it with her semblance in mind. He turned back to see Blake and Yang now looking equally terrified.

Maybe not such a flawless plan

* * *

It was getting later in the day, but the practice arenas were still open, and the entirety of the two teams, plus Alex were gathered.

He handed the weapon to Nora, who took it eagerly and quickly unfurled it. She paused, looking at in confusion.

"I feel… I feel amazing! What did you do?" She bounced, turning eagerly to Alex.

He smirked, putting a hand on his chin as he talked, "Well, you see, a constant charge is passing throughout the entire weapon at all times, fuelling your semblance and increasing your strength further just by holding it. That's not all, however". Alex could see the girl quickly losing focus, and so moved on.

"You see the trigger?" A quick glance at her newly upgraded weapon and a nod confirmed that, "Pull it, hard".

She did so, and immediately the weapon lit up with the force of a vengeful thunderstorm. Any other human would have been sent into convulsions and then possibly have died, but Nora only got stronger and stronger from the over-abundance of electricity, becoming wreathed in a halo of crackling blue energy.

The others yelped and dived for cover as thin sparks raked across the room, but he stood firm, and gestured widely to the training dummy they'd set up earlier. A standard robotic model, durable, but not notably so.

Nora tore across the space between her and the dummy, before brining back her hammer and smashing it into the side of the dummy with all of her strength. The flat of the hammer connected with a deafening boom, blowing the dummy sideways, obliterated and broken, but that wasn't all. A lance of blue electricity shot out straight, missing the dummy flying sideways, but splashing into the opposite wall and leaving a gigantic scorch mark on the wall.

The massive cloud of dust kicked up by her swing slowly settled, and Alex could admire the carnage his newest creation had wrought. Not only had the girl's incredibly enhanced strength blown the dummy off its stand, it had blown it through the wall at the side of the arena, and then through the next wall after that, leaving an impressive trail of destruction across the Academy Grounds.

He folded his arms, and raised an impressed eyebrow at the girl. That had exceeded his expectations in terms of the power it would give her, but over reaching goals was what he did best, and he only found himself growing more pleased with his work.

The sound of seven jaws hitting the floor was immensely gratifying.

"That trigger activates the electric dust cartridge added in, causing the weapon to overload with an electric charge, outputting up to 3200v over the space of about five seconds. It'll shut off the passive charge, and you'll have to replace the cartridge afterwards, but otherwise there should be no drawbacks".

"So" He continued, turning to the other assembled students as Nora began to vibrate with barely restrained excitement, "Who's next?".

He had time for one more upgrade before their scheduled field trip to the Forever Fall forest, and he was planning to make it count.

The ensuing scramble did not serve to deflate his ego in the slightest.

* * *

Ozpin stared across his Academy, framed by the setting sun. It looked like his gamble had paid off. Blacklight had refrained from mauling any students or teachers, and in return, it's presence served as a deterrent for any future attacks.

Glynda had improved her stance towards the creature, apparently trying to forget Alex Mercer's true nature. It was an easy thing to do, it was a model student for the most part, but still made the occasional mistake. It had a small group of friends, and aside from hurling one Cardin Winchester out of the Cafeteria; it was not violent in the slightest. Even in sparring matches, its approach was more clinical and calculated, dissecting his opponent's fighting styles before taking them apart.

And that _scared_ him.

He'd seen the ancient videos. He'd watched what it could do, tearing apart man after man with vicious abandon, bodily entrails flying across instillations as soldier after soldier fell, desperately trying to slow the monster down.

Tanks were torn to pieces, and then thrown at helicopters, and should that fail, it repurposed them, driving them with all the skill of their original operators and then some.

Soldiers had fought and died beside their comrades, only to be stabbed in the back by the monster wearing their friend's skin.

It was almost easy to forget that the armoured monstrosity that had torn through 'Manhattan' was one of the top students at his academy.

It was almost easy to forget that the monster that had haunted his childhood was right under his nose.

He took another sip of his coffee, loose hand curling tighter around his cane.

He had never even considered taking pity on Grimm, or those who served them, before, but thinking of those videos, he could not wish that fate upon anyone, no matter their evil.

Now he just had to stop Ironwood from having a heart attack when he arrived for the Vytal Festival. He was sure the stone-cold general would not appreciate having to ally with the creature that had torn his arm clean off.

* * *

PARIAH stared down the creature before him with a glare. He kept his eyes open for any movement, carefully keeping his full attention focused on it.

Zwei barked happily.

"I want to eat you" He hissed, crouching down to get to eye-level with the dog. It licked his face happily, and his glare intensified.

"I _really_ want to eat you" He glanced around, before reaching out for the dog, intent on-

THWAP!

"NO EATING MY DOG!"

"Good god woman!" He complained back, now sporting a monocle and an accent.

"STOP WITH THE BLOODY ACCENTS!"

"Dunno what'cha talkin abeet mon" The monocle vanished once more, and Summer Rose's eyebrow twitched violently.

To their credit, sitting downstairs on the sofa, Tai and Qrow only looked up slightly as the screaming started. They shared a glance, before shrugging and going back to their T.V

It only took about a minute for Summer to come storming down stairs, Zwei at her heel. The little dog paused to shake the blood out of his fur, before happily following he into the next room.

The twitching form of PARIAH dragged himself along the floor, before stopping.

"I've just carpet burned my face".

The heavy doorstep that held the kitchen door open was snatched up, and hurled into PARIAH's face with enough force to flip him back over and send him tumbling out of the room.

"OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO THE KITCHEN!"

Zwei came charging in the direction he just came, and Tai and Qrow leapt up to follow him. As the two of them charged through into the hallway, making a beeline for the front door, they ignored PARIAH's body slumped against a wall.

"Hmm? Why're we running?"

"GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE!"

"Oh fuck, SCATTER!".

PARIAH was a tactical genius, and the veteran of countless battles. His tactical skills were literally the stuff of legend.

Running away from the huntress with the speed semblance was not one of his more well though out plans.

He was so glad that he'd sent away his video games.

* * *

 **The upgraded weaponry idea extends only to Magnahild and one other which will not be named, but should any of you have a good idea for a viable upgrade to anyone's weapon, give me a shout.**

 **Also holy shit i love writing PARIAH  
**

 **Also holy shit Breath of The Wild just came out and it looks actually sexual.**


	5. The Crimson Past

**_A/N This is pretty much a weekly update, so be pleased damn it. This isn't going to be a long Note because it is really late in England and I need to go to bed. So yeah, new chapter, blah blah blah PARIAH in a turban blah blah blah._**

* * *

 _It would be many years before Dana Mercer finally died. She lived an impressively long life, especially for one so active. Eventually, she'd grown too weak, and they'd been forced to settle in a small, sleepy town in rural America. Blackwatch had gotten wind of their now suddenly static location, but Alex had quickly disabused them of the idea that attempting any sort of attack was an incredibly poor idea._

 _She wrote a bestselling book about her travels, and even included PARIAH and Alex within it, under false names, of course. She was also forced to disguise her own name, as even sixty years onwards from the Manhattan outbreak, the name of Mercer still carried many negative connotations._

 _She lay in her own bed at their small two-storey house. She'd adamantly refused to go into the town hospital; resolutely stating she'd rather die in her own bed than in a whitewashed hospital._

 _She smiled at the two of them, tears in PARIAH's eyes and Alex hanging his head low. For once his extensive knowledge of human biology proved a curse, and he knew that she was dying._

 _"_ _I love you two idiots, you know that?" She'd rasped, and PARIAH had latched onto her futilely, letting her wrap the free hand that wasn't being clutched by what was formerly her biological brother._

 _"_ _You remember that promise, kid?" PARIAH nodded into her chest, "Good, I'll be counting on you" Her head lolled to look at Alex, for once in a moment of weakness._

 _"_ _And you. I know we can be idiots sometimes, but you've got to keep believing" She smiled again as he looked up to meet her eyes, "and look after the kid. God knows he needs it"._

 _She gave a final smile, before her hand went slowly limp, and she closed her eyes with a peaceful sigh, the smile still on her face._

 _PARIAH had cried, for the first time since he'd been born, he'd truly cried in sadness. He'd been distraught when he felt the death of his biological mother through the hive-mind, but didn't truly know what to make of it. His mother had never done anything for him, and so it was more instinctual than a true emotional response._

 _Alex's head dropped, gently placing her hand back over her chest. The hood shadowed his face, but you could practically see the waves of negativity rolling off him._

 _It was a long time before either of them moved, Alex sitting there hunched, and PARIAH silently sobbing. Eventually Alex rose, the hood still shadowing the upper part of his face. He scooped up her body, and turned to make for the door._

 _He couldn't call the hospital, as they were no doubt under surveillance by the remnants of Blackwatch, and if that was beyond them in their crippled state, then another one of the numerous government agencies who'd zeroed in on them in their weakness. Should they come into possession of the body, it would be treated as a scientific asset of the highest order. Dana shared the original Alex's DNA, which meant there was a high chance whatever had turned Alex into the monster he currently was in their shared genes._

 _He couldn't, wouldn't allow that. Which meant he would have to bury her himself._

 _He'd seen death before, the countless mutilated corpses he'd left in his wake a million times worse than the unmarred old woman in his arms._

 _So then why was even looking at her face so hard?_

 _The burial did not take long, even with PARIAH still a sobbing wreck and unable to help him, it took Alex all of half an hour to purchase an old coffin from the town antique shop and dig a suitable hole._

 _The town was decidedly in the south of America, and it wasn't hard to find a suitable boulder to carve a headstone from. He did everything himself, using his claws to sheer off a suitably sized piece of rock and then a single, wickedly sharp digit to carve in an epitaph._

 _The grave was isolated when it was finished, in the dry forests that surrounded the town. It sat unassuming among the trees, and would be almost impossible to find even with knowledge of it's location. For anyone except Alex, that was. He was already committing the location to memory, and would never forget it, even if he wished that he could._

 _As he stared silently at his brother, sobbing on his knees in front of the grave, he was slightly worried. PARIAH had never cried, even after years of torture in countless medical facilities, the boy had never cried even once._

 _After a slight deliberation, he carved two more pieces of rock. These two did not need graves, or lengthy epitaphs. They just had to be there._

 _PARIAH slowly grew silent as he stared at the three headstones, lined up in a prefect row._

 ** _DANA MERCER_**

 ** _ALEX MERCER_**

 ** _EDWARD GREENE_**

 _Alex's gaze remained fixed on the lines even as PARIAH turned to regard his own grave with confusion. Alex had consumed Elizabeth Greene, and from her memories, he'd picked out what she'd always wanted to call her then unborn child. Before Operation Altruistic had happened, and that had been taken away from her._

 _She'd planned to study literature in university, and the name Edward came from the countless English Kings bearing that name. Edward Greene had been confused, knowing only a false name. Until he'd been saved, and taught how to live, not a normal life, but any life at all was better than what he'd had before._

 _Edward Greene was dead, as was Alex Mercer. Edward had survived remarkably longer than Alex had, being consumed by his own masterpiece many years ago now. But now both lay in the ground, alongside the woman who'd given them so much._

 _PARIAH and Blacklight were left in their place. The monster with a heart, and the soulless abomination he called brother._

 _"_ _W-what do we d-do now? "Pariah's voice was shaky as he rose to his feet. Blacklight's gaze remained locked on the graves for a second longer, before he turned away, hands balled into fists._

 _"_ _I'll be perfectly honest with you, kid. I've no idea, but we'll figure something out. I promise" Blacklight's voice cracked with emotion for the first time in it's existence._

 _Through his sadness, PARIAH believed him. His brother never lied to him, and if he said they'd figure something out, they would. They always did._

 _PARIAH had a promise to keep, after all._

* * *

Alex was slowly but surely developing a loathing for Cardin Winchester. The boy was arrogant, bigoted and generally an unpleasant person. Still, he knew far better than to judge a book by it's cover, and it was more than likely he'd suffered some great injustice at the hands of the Faunus to give him his hatred of them.

In contrast, Bartholomew Oobleck was probably his favorite of all the Beacon professors. The history professor spoke fast, but provided insights revealing wisdom beyond his years behind the round spectacles he wore permanently. It was typical to his luck that the man had to be teaching History of all subjects, the most useless one to him, as he'd actually lived through everything in the syllabus and actually been part of the vast majority of it.

"-This is prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, known more popularly as the Faunus War!" He emphasized the map of Remnant behind with a small pointer, and Alex unconsciously scowled as he was reminded just what the subject was. The rabbit-Faunus girl from the cafeteria, sitting next to him, skirted away in terror at even the sight of his anger. Not that he noticed, of course.

"Humankind was quite, quite… adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie" He brought their attention to the island with his pointer," Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively _recent_ events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"

Alex barely restrained a snarl. Damn right they could still see the effects. Half of his once glorious creations were running around shunned and discriminated against, while the other half were terrorists.

Oobleck continued for a while in the same vein, moving at impressive speeds for a human without the aid of a semblance like Ruby's. Cardin made to throw a rolled up ball of paper at the sleeping Jaune Arc, who was, unfortunately seated in front of Alex.

The battle he was discussing was one he was familiar with. He had actually been at Fort Castle, and had destroyed the vast majority of the human army under cover of darkness, allowing his forces to believe there had been a Grimm attack and making it simple to mop up the survivors and capture General Lagune.

Alex snatched the ball from the air as it flew past him, crushing it in his hand and leaving it on his desk, ignoring Cardin's glare. Unfortunately, Jaune still woke up from the noise, and his confused grunt gave Oobleck more than enough indication to zero in on him.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to the class! This is excellent, simply excellent! What is the answer?" Jaune was clearly still disoriented from his sleep. And despite a visual clue from Pyrrha.

"Uhhh… Binoculars?" Alex winced from where he was continuing to sketch equations in his notebook.

Several people snorted in amusement, and Cardin pounded a fist on his desk and chortled loudly. Unfortunately for him, that allowed Oobleck to focus on him instead.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin! Perhaps you would be willing to share your thoughts on the subject?"

The boy smirked and leant back in his chair, "Well, it's a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier".

Alex, in a remarkable display of restraint, only left a spiderweb of cracks where his fist impacted his desk, rather than splitting it down the middle. Velvet yelped and leapt as far back as she could go, and several other people on the same desk made noises of confusion and surprise, and then were silent as they realized why it had snapped down the middle.

"You're going learn to use that voice properly, or I will _rip out your larynx and beat you to death with it. Are. We. Clear?"_

Everyone had gone deathly silent, and Cardin himself had gone an interesting shade of white. Oobleck, for his part, seemed only slightly shocked before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Mr. Mercer, I believe part of the agreement you made with the headmaster was that you not _…_ _brutalize_ any of the other students".

"I'm sure he'll be willing to make an exception". Alex grumbled, but backed down and refocused on his work. He couldn't help but feel a grudging respect for Oobleck. He'd done what only the headmaster had dared to do so far, and that was exposing a sliver of his violent nature to the student population.

Keep him away from the students by keeping them away from him. Smart.

Pyrrha was the first to regain her composure, and shakily answered the question "It was night vision. That's the answer. Many Faunus are known to have near perfect night-vision".

Oobleck's sunny demeanor returned and as Blake picked up from Pyrrha's point, giving a fairly detailed account of what had transpired.

"Excellent, Ms. Belladonna. However, that is only the official report, and now you are huntsmen and huntresses in training, you are allowed to know the true story". Even the students who hadn't been paying attention leaned forwards, their interest piqued.

Alex barely restrained a grin. ' _Oh you brilliant bastard'_

"What actually happened, was that before his attack could commence, general Lagune's forces came under attack from a single Creature of Grimm" Several intakes of breath could be heard and a corner of Alex's mouth curled upwards.

"Details of the creature are scarce, as the only living creatures who witnessed it were the Faunus stationed in the castle, who despite their natural night vision, were too far away to accurately see the creature".

"But that doesn't make sense. The only Grimm that could do that kind of damage alone would be one of the S-Classes, and they are all gigantic.". Pyrrha mused, and the class shared in her confusion.

"Exactly, and the only other living human who saw the creature was the general himself, who was far too traumatized by his ordeal to recall anything about it. This was a puzzle that both historians and Grimm researchers puzzled over for many years, and it was a problem we feared we'd never find the answer to. However, with information provided by our own headmaster, one of only two humans to have seen the creature up close and remained sane, we have solved the puzzle".

Oobleck returned to his desk and set down his thermos, bridging his hands.

"What I am about to tell you is not to leave this room, or the consequences will be far more sever than merely being expelled from this academy, am I understood?" The students were understandably unnerved, but nodded anyway. Alex continued to grin.

He knew there was a reason he liked the History Professor.

"The creature is known as Blacklight, and is currently the oldest Grimm we have a record of, and the creature itself has mentioned that it is the oldest in existence. Yes, you heard correctly, I said 'mentioned'. It is capable of imitating human speech, and has given hints that it has existed far before both humans and Faunus even walked the earth. The only reason we even know of the creature's existence is thanks to our own headmaster, who is one of only two humans who have talked to the creature and lived to tell the tale".

No one had anything to say to that, and rightly so, eventually Jaune spoke up.

"Professor, you said the headmaster was one of two. Who's the other person?".

Oobleck's spectacled gaze focused on Alex, and his eyes widened momentarily.

' _Oh, he wouldn't'_

"The other person to have seen the creature and lived" Oobleck continue, his voice barely more than a whisper, "Is Alex Mercer".

All eyes focused on his in an instant, and with slow, deliberate movements, he closed his notebook and set his pencil down.

"Yeah". He chortled weakly, and his expression turned haunted, as if remembering a traumatic event, "Yeah, I've seen the damn thing".

"Tell me something, all of you? Have you ever had a nightmare?" He looked around their shocked faces and chuckled, "I'm sure you have. Now imagine a nightmare, and there's blood and screaming and fire, and in the middle, there's a monster. And it laughs and laughs and _laughs_ , as it rips through people, mocking them as they plead for their lives before it tears them apart. You want to wake up now. But then you can't, and you realize it's real. And it just keeps laughing and laughing and-"

"Mr. Mercer" Oobleck cut in sharply, and Alex took a shaky breath, and the other students suddenly realized he was sweating, and his eyes had a wild, terrified look to them. "That's enough, please"

Alex relaxed back into his seat, but placed his head in his hands. No one moved, or even looked at him. Their faces are all stricken in terror as each imagine their own personal monster.

Oobleck was the first to speak into the silence, but even when he did it was a whisper.

"Class dismissed. Arc, Winchester, stay behind for a minute". The bell rang a second later, and rather than the usual stampede to get out and be free from classes, no one moved.

Except Alex.

He retrieved his bags, and as he stumbled out of the classroom covered in sweat, he knew that just the sight of him like that was enough to terrify them

If Alex Mercer, the cool and collected scientist who could fight whole teams and win, was so terrified by that monster, then what would it do to their own minds?

As he rounded the corridor, he straightened up, the sweat evaporated in an instant, and he moved with his usual, confident gait. For the first time since he'd arrived at the academy, Blacklight slipped through for but a single second.

He grinned savagely, _'Oh, I knew there was a reason I liked that man'_

As quickly as it came, it was gone, and Alex Mercer returned to his dorm room early to begin preparations for the next weaponry upgrade. He could use his supposed mental trauma to get a headstart on the planning phase.

He should really consider a job in acting. They paid well, no matter the age, and he certainly had the talent for it.

He was more than aware he was a monster. He had the last, horrified thoughts of countless individuals as he'd torn them to shreds and assimilated their essence. His own chitinous visage had once terrified even himself.

But that was many years ago, and the last thoughts of fear, pain, regret and horror had long since become a part of him.

They did not bother him anymore, nothing did.

* * *

That evening, Alex sat over his newly christened worktable once more, this time with the wielder of the weapon he was to upgrade at his side. Lie Ren had infinitely more patience than his partner, and was more than happy to sit and oversee the work. He was wise enough to know he was outclassed in terms of technical knowledge, so he left Ruby and Alex to do the designing for a potential upgrade.

Originally, after the initial scramble, they'd decided a member of team RWBY should receive the next upgrade, in the spirit of fairness. Jaune and his team had been more than happy to acquiesce to that request, but that led to the second problem of who within the team got the upgrade.

Before that fight could break out, Nora had gotten over her initial excitement, and now armed with a very dangerous weapon, declared that Ren was to get the next upgrade. Unable to challenge the newly christened 'Queen of the Castle', they had begrudgingly allowed it, and Ren had brought his weaponry in for Alex to look at.

The deficiencies in Ren's weapon design were less obvious than in Nora's. The weapons were clearly designed for mobility rather than firepower, perhaps to use in conjunction with some form of martial arts. Having the infinitely patient boy there to advise became incredibly useful, and allowed Alex to devote more of his time to actually working on the weapon rather than puzzling over it's applications in combat.

Two more sleepless nights, and the weapons were done. The upgrades were by no means as flashy as Nora's, but Ren seemed to appreciate it just as much, if not more.

Alex had incorporated two strings of hyper-tensile fibre into the weapon, with clawed, razor sharp tips. Fired from a barrel atop the weapon, they could act as grappling hooks, capable of pulling Ren and one other person per weapon used a considerable distance.

The other deficiency he'd noted was firepower. Though Ren seemed to focus more on finesse and skill rather than raw strength, he lacked the power to punch through the tougher armour that covered certain species of Grimm.

That problem had been solved by giving the weapon the ability to utilize a shotgun like blast as a secondary fire, rather than the rapid-fire spray of his usual fire. It allowed him, in the vein of Yang's weapon, to increase the power of his individual strikes, at the cost of ammo.

The others had, thankfully, not seen the weapon yet, as they were too busy with preparations for the upcoming field trip. He was not particularly looking forward to the blonde brawler's reaction to the mechanic her own weapon was based around being repurposed for another.

Still, as they were shepherded onto several Bullheads for the flight to the Forever Fall forest, he was equally as pleased with his work on Ren's weapon as he had been on his work on his partner's. While the weapon was not flashy in the slightest, it was simplistic, and yet effective, and he could appreciate that equally as a lighting throwing super-powered hammer.

He smiled slightly as the doors clunked shut and the students settled down for the lengthy flight. There were most definitely worse places to go on Remnant than the beautiful crimson forest.

* * *

As he sat in the iron hull of the aircraft, and the other students plugged in headphones or began to talk quietly to their friends, Alex returned to his notebook once more. The task of designing upgrades for his peers' weaponry was an unexpected delay, but not a major setback. He had four years, and potentially even longer after that to finish the design.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jaune being talked to by Cardin and another member of his team. The boy was clearly being bullied, and most likely blackmailed by the larger team-leader, if the conversation Jaune had with his partner atop the rooftops of the dorm were any indication.

He'd been working through the night on Magnahild's upgrades at the time, and had not paid much attention to it, but it was clearly causing some distress among the other members of his team and their friends.

Ren had expressed his own worries to Ruby and him while they worked, and to them, the team leader's mysterious change of friendship to become little more than a glorified errand boy had been a confusing and worrying one, but with his own knowledge of Jaune's situation, it made perfect sense.

Pyrrha Nikos was watching her partner with a look of hurt and betrayal. Alex had taken the time to do some background research on the girl, after a team-fight with JNPR had her displaying an impressive skill for someone so young.

She'd won a tournament, Mistral's Regional Championship, four years in a row. She was something of a celebrity athlete, and he'd found her picture on various merchandise.

'The Invincible Girl', they'd called her. What a lovely title.

Not one that would be of much use against the hordes of darkness. Still, the girl had proven herself to be more than capable in combat, and with a sufficiently effective upgrade to her weaponry, she would be removed from his area of worry.

Someone moved into the empty seat next to him, and he glanced up from his book to see a red cloak

"Hey, I- uh… I really need to talk to you" Alex snapped his book shut and turned to focus on Ruby, she looked nervous, as she usually did when being confronted with social situations.

"Hmm?"

"Well, I uh... I need to know about that Grimm, Blacklight. You know the one Oobleck was-"

Alex stiffened in shock, the images of himself taken from others memories, surrounded by fire and covered in blood came to the forefront of his mind and he forced himself to mimic the natural human responses of fear.

"I know it's probably really horrible for you, but I really, _really_ need to know".

"Why do you need to know so badly?"

The girl's silver eyes hardened in determination

"Because I'm sure it was the one that nearly killed my mum".

His reaction was very carefully regulated, and he let only mild surprise show on his face. He hadn't killed a Silver-Eyed Warrior for over two hundred years, and he would have recognized the girl's resemblance to any those he'd fought.

He'd have to handle this carefully. Oobleck, and by extension Ozpin, who no doubt had advised the move, had performed a very clever move by revealing Blacklight's existence to the student population. It forced him to alienate his monstrous true nature from his current persona. Which meant lying, a lot.

Luckily for him, Alex was very good at lying.

"So you want revenge? That's not the smartest move in the world". She shook her head determinedly.

"No. There's a chance it could come back, to finish my mum off, right? So then when it does come back, I can be ready for it".

Alex blanched internally. He wondered if PARIAH had gone and set up a 'Psychology of Blacklight' booth somewhere on Remnant while he'd been away, because had he actually attacked the girl's mother, then he would probably go back to finish the job. He didn't like loose ends, and dealt with them accordingly.

It wouldn't be the first time PARIAH had set up a stall in some random backwater part of one of the four kingdoms. One time he'd even worn a turban and become a marvelous (read, fraudulent) fortune teller.

"If you're looking for weaknesses, then I'm afraid I won't be able to help you." He chuckled weakly, "I don't think it has any weaknesses".

Ruby looked downcast and she eyed his shaking hand with concern, "Hey, I-I'm sorry. I didn't want to bring up any bad memories, it's just... I don't know what I'd do without my Mum. Yang too, we both really rely on her".

Well shit, he probably would've felt bad about hunting down and consuming the woman. Probably. Maybe.

Highly unlikely, actually. Maybe staying in his 'Alex Mercer' persona for too long was making him feel more apathetic. Maybe a good hunt or two once he got a bit of free time would rectify that.

"W-what actually happened? With the Grimm, I mean". Alex exhaled a shaky breath, before he began lying spectacularly.

"When I was little, I lived in this little village in Mistral. There weren't many Grimm attacks in our area, and those that did happen were generally repelled pretty easily. The huntsman stationed in our village was called Cross. He wasn't the strongest huntsman, but he was always nice to me and my sister".

Ruby opened her mouth to say something but he ploughed on, "Then one day, without any warning, we were attacked. The entire town was set on fire, and when we came out to investigate, we found _that thing_ "

He paused, his fist clenching, "It killed my sister, you know. Sliced her in half with its claws. We didn't have any auras then, so it only took one hit. It killed so many people, and Cross told me to run".

He hung his head low, "The last time I saw him he was leaping in to stop the damn thing, and it was just _laughing_. Even as it tore everyone and everything I've ever known apart. As I ran from the fire and the blood, it just kept laughing".

His eyes focused on his clenched fist. "I unlocked my aura that night. A single Beowulf had come to investigate the carnage, and they tried to attack me, I panicked, and the combined stress was enough to forcibly unlock my aura. I punched straight through its skull".

"A couple of years later, I found out about my brother, he was the only family I had left, and so I tracked him down, and we traveled around, scraping by on what we could find. I found an escape in my work, letting me forget, just for a little bit, what had happened. I.. am sorry. I'm rambling, and this is probably boring for-"

He'd been so caught up in making sure his speech was consistent and believable he'd almost forgotten he was actually talking to someone, until a pair of tiny arms wrapped around him, and he froze.

She was _hugging him_.

Oh no no no. Blacklight does not do hugs. Even when Dana was alive, he would only let her hug him in very special circumstances. That which meant, in actuality, whenever the hell she wanted. His biological sister could be very insistent when she wanted to be.

Eventually, she pulled back, tears in her eyes.

Oh god I'm so so sorry. I-I didn't realize and-" He held up a hand in defense.

"It's fine, it was a long time ago now". His tone did not at all suggest that it was in any way fine or that he had forgotten in the slightest. They were silent for a couple more moments, before she shuffled quietly off, muttering something about needing to go now.

He flipped the book back open, and began writing again, particularly slowly for extra effect. He would've smirked, would it not blow his disguise.

Crisis averted.

* * *

He watched the red leaves of Forever Fall drift down slowly, three jars of sap arranged neatly by his feet.

He'd left the other students some ways behind, partly to get the privacy he enjoyed so much, and partly to keep an eye on Jaune, who'd broken off a ways away from Cardin.

He'd need to deal with the issue directly sooner rather than later. Schisms within Beacon itself would make his job of defending it considerably harder, especially if comrades weren't willing to defend each other due to past disagreements.

He leant behind the tree he'd been collecting sap from, easily wide enough to cover his berth, and allowing him to look into the clearing where Cardin was explaining his scheme to his team and a clearly conflicted Jaune.

He put a palm to his face when he heard their elaborate plan. To throw their collected jars of sap at him, then loose some collected Rapier Wasps on him as some sort of 'payback' for his humiliation of Cardin. Perhaps throwing him through a window had something to do with it, as well, now he though about it.

The boy was stupider than he gave him credit for. While the sap did in fact attract Rapier Wasps, it also attracted Grimm, which wasn't fun for anyone except the person he was attracting them to

He should know, he'd engineered the stuff. As well as the wasps, actually, though how they'd ended up being called 'Rapier Wasps' was beyond him.

Actually, it wasn't beyond him at all. It was probably PARIAH. Standard response for everything that doesn't make sense in the world, blame PARIAH.

Plus he was usually right, and more often than not it is actually PARIAH's fault, but that's beside the point.

He was about to step in when Jaune adamantly refused, in a substantial show of bravery he clearly hadn't been exhibiting before. He would thank him for that later.

The jars meant for Alex were thrown onto Cardin instead, causing the boy to become enraged and grab the scraggly blonde team leader by the lapels of his armour.

Alex listened as Jaune was beaten and thrown around with indifference. The experience would be useful for him, and despite how badly he might have been beaten up, he would make up with his team afterwards. He could convince Ozpin to keep the boy within Beacon and ensure Cardin's silence as to the nature of his entry to Beacon another way.

He had finally considered the boy to have had enough when the latest punch towards Jaune was repulsed by a burst of brilliant white light, emanating from Jaune, which simultaneously healed his admittedly minor wounds and sent team CRDL tumbling.

Alex leant slightly further round his tree. Now that was interesting. The boy had openly admitted to not having discovered his semblance, and the ability he'd just displayed was more than unique enough to be classified as one.

The only other explanation for it would have been a highly concentrated aura burst, focused around the user's body to repel and stun nearby opponents. Unless the boy was secretly an aura manipulation master, something that required a lifetime of training he clearly did not have.

A semblance then. Perhaps a counter ability? That would provide an interesting and versatile ability, and also one suited to the boy himself. He lacked the agility to dodge faster attacks, and such a semblance would complement him nicely.

Then, after what Alex realized was a much longer time than it should have to attract a Grimm, a rather large Ursa Major charged through the clearing, and began to attack.

In a display of the best comradely attitude he'd seen since a tank had clotheslined a Blackwatch soldier in Manhattan by accident, the other three members of team CRDL fled, leaving their leader to fight alone.

For all his boasting, Cardin was quickly disarmed and flung around like a ragdoll by the Grimm, leaving the ever heroic paragon of virtue, Jaune Arc, to have a brief but intense mental debate as to whether he should actually help him or not.

He was all for leaving him to get mauled by the bear-like creature. It would remove a problem from his schedule, and creating a false story around a death was something he'd done so many times he'd lost count.

Nevertheless, Jaune leapt into the fray, sword and shield brandished. It would have been a heroic motion, was he not sideswiped and sent flying not two seconds afterwards, but it was an effort nevertheless.

He eyed the arrival of Jaune's partner, along with Ruby and her own partner at the edge of the clearing with the slightest of regard. He was pleased to see Pyrrha have enough sense to leave Jaune to fight. He needed the experience, and should he become incapacitated, either them or him could leap in to turn the tables.

Nevertheless, a subtle application of Pyrrha's magnetism semblance to correct Jaune's defense was enough to win him the fight. Alex had suspected as to the nature of Pyrrha's semblance since he'd first seen her fight, and that subtle manipulation confirmed his suspicions.

Magnetism was most definitely an incredibly useful ability. In a world full of metal, the ability to magnetize and manipulate applicable metals was incredibly useful and versatile. He'd most commonly seen the girl use it subtly to redirect weaponry strikes away from her, giving her and advantage against anyone with a metal weapon, which was almost everyone.

He heard the second Ursa coming even as Jaune turned to Cardin, now regarding him in what was clearly a new light. Jaune noticed the Ursa too late, and as he turned to face it he tripped backwards, making him fall onto his backside.

With a sigh, Alex pushed off his tree, and blitzed into the space he knew the Ursa was about to occupy. As it leapt for the defenseless Jaune, his fist crashed into the side of its face, blowing it backwards with an explosive force.

It flew across the clearing, then through the trees at the opposite end, leaving a trail of dust and wood chippings. He frowned after it, before turning to Jaune and offering him hand up.

"Nice work with that Ursa Major" Jaune smiled for a second before blinking in surprise.

"Wait a second, that was an Ursa Major? I thought it was just a regular Ursa!" Alex raised a distinctly unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"Haven't you been paying attention in Port's classes?" Then it was his turn to blink, and he turned away scowling as he realized what he'd just said, "Actually, never mind. Yes, it's an Ursa Major".

"Speaking of Major" He continued smoothly, he walked over to Cardin, and delivered a swift kick to the side of his temple, knocking him clean out as Pyrrha, Ruby and Weiss entered the clearing, _"You_ are a major asshole".

They all stared at him for a second.

"What? Everyone wanted to kick his teeth in, Jaune just got there first".

They laughed and Jaune rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, grinning. Ruby gasped dramatically and pointed at him.

"Hey, you just made a joke!" Cardin groaned and he kicked him again. They stared at him blankly

He looked back at them, "What? I make jokes", a pause "Sometimes" he admitted.

Oh god he could literally hear the crickets chirping.

"Can we just take the asshole back to Goodwitch and go? If she asks the Ursa knocked him out".

They didn't have any objections, and from the way Jaune and Pyrrha were acting around, he could safely say that he'd resolved that particular schism in the making.

Equally, Cardin wouldn't bother Jaune, he'd seen the respect in his eyes before he'd been unceremoniously put to sleep, and should he try and reveal Jaune's secret, Alex would _convince_ him to be quiet.

A rather productive day, if he did say so himself.

* * *

Ruby had declared that the best way for her and by extension her team to get weaponry upgrades was to visit Alex as early as possible, and so that was why, at the ungodly time of five-thirty in the morning, ruby dragged an unwilling white-haired partner down the corridor, trying to keep her from crashing into the walls.

"We're meant o have a lie in on days off, Ruby, not wake up at… whatever time it is!" Weiss hissed groggily at her partner, who had the decency to look the very least bit sheepish.

"Shhh, we're here". Ruby lightly pushed open the strangely unlocked door, to find the hunched and very much asleep form of Alex with his head on the desk. He was using his arms to rest his head, and had clearly been working before he'd collapsed, if the scattered sketches and blueprints were any indication.

Ruby had never seen the strangely distant scientist asleep or even groggy before, but she supposed even he needed to sleep sometimes.

His sleep was clearly not a peaceful one however. He was grunting occasionally, and practically writhing on the desk as he tossed and turned, trying to get away from some imaginary monster.

Or perhaps, ruby thought as she recalled their conversation on the ride to Forever Fall, not so imaginary.

She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, and shake him awake as gently as she could, but as soon as her fingertips even brushed his shoulder, he snapped awake.

He whirled upwards, the chair spinning as he spun into a wild and unrestrained punch, she barely had time to react, even as it sped to a halt inches from her face.

Alex was panting, practically growling, his fist barely in front of her nose. Slowly he lowered his fist and collapsed back into the chair. He looked weak, and broken as he brought a hand up to rub his face.

"AH crap, I… sorry. I don't sleep much anymore. What are you two doing here so early? Uprgades?" His speech was even more delirious, and he slurred slightly as he rubbed the tiredness from his eyes.

"Uh… yeah" Ruby allowed herself to relax, but she could tell that Weiss was still just as alarmed. She'd have to explain about Mercer's past later, "I mean, if you don-"

He waved a hand to cut her off, "It's fine, I need something to do anyway. Who's first".

"Ah… Oh! Uh, Weiss " The heiress blinked at her unusual show of charity but nevertheless accepted it and handed over her weapon. Alex inspected it, slightly, before flicking on the lamp that stood on his desk and looking at it under the light.

"We're just going to get breakfast" Weiss shot her a look again. The cafeteria didn't open for another two hours, but she said nothing.

Alex waved them off, and the two of them backed out of the room and closed the door quietly on the now working Mercer.

"Okay, what was that?" Weiss sounded concerned and even a bit afraid.

"Well…"

"Hey Qrow" The man looked up from the book he'd been reading.

"What?"

"Can I have a drink? Please?" Taiyang sounded almost desperate.

"What? You never drink in the week, what's going-" Tai pointed weakly out the large glass door at the back of their house, giving them a clear view of the rather expansive garden.

A garden that was currently occupied by PARIAH, wearing some sort of long black robe and for whatever reason, a large Green Turban, and moving in ominous circles around Zwei, seated happily in the middle of an intricately carved pentagram on the ground.

Qrow handed his flask over.

"Save some for me".He pleaded as Summer walked in and Tai handed the flask back with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, are you guys okay?" Tai pointed out the window again, and Summer blinked, before dashing to the door and sliding it open.

"Hey!"

"AGH! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" PARIAH yelped in surprise.

He made a dash to snag Zwei out of the centre of his pentagram even as Summer burst out of the house after him, the two of them trading obscenities all the while.

"Hey Qrow?"

"Yeah?"

"How much of that stuff have you got?"

Qrow shook his head sadly

"Not enough".

* * *

 **Avoiding Breath of The Wild spoilers like the fucking plague over here. It's really hard. Like really, really hard.**

 **Not quite Undertale hard, but close.**


	6. Shenanigans Ensue

**A/N: Wow, sorry for the delay on this one, I've been all over the place on school trips, family trips, not to mention working for exams (joy)but fear not! Now the easter holidays have rolled around, I'm back in my groove, and with a chapter of almost 10k words to make up for it.**

 **Also, because for whatever reason it didn't save that part of the A/N last time, a specula thanks to Sociopathic-Antichrist, who provided pretty much the whole idea for the last upgrade, and will for the next one. Not this one, however. I do have to do _some_ of the work by myself.**

 **I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed, favourited, followed etc etc, but special mention to Noob6 for guessing a major plot detail, The Baz for writing some great stories and still having the time to check mine out, and Diaspared for generally being nice and friendly. Thank you all, you guys rock.**

 **And finally, to the one user who took the time out of his day to PM just to check on how I was doing, and to tell me he was enjoying my story, thank you. It means a lot to me.**

 **Anyways, Onwards and upwards!**

* * *

 _Lights rose into the sky across the planet, a haunting symphony of silence as they rose upwards, and upwards, and upwards._

 _They turned, thrusters firing in reverse as they began to fall, painfully slowly._

 _Then they hit the ground, and then the world was bathed in nuclear fire._

 _Volcanoes exploded, their vengeful molten fury roaring to the heavens. Choking ash spewed from their tops, covering the sun and throwing the world into darkness._

 _The ocean rose up, walls of thrashing water taller than the highest buildings ripping across the land. Trees and buildings alike were torn from their roots and foundations, and swept away as if they were nothing._

 _The earth shattered, great chasms tearing themselves through the land, running molten scars across once beautiful landscapes. It swallowed entire towns and villages, sinking below the surface to never be seen again._

 _The sky howled, nuclear storms and hurricanes, snatching up anything in their paths, and sending arcs of lightning across the sky, followed by the crash of thunder._

 _But the worst of the sounds? The worst were the unholy screeches of the very monsters humanity birthed. Hulking black, wolfish creatures tore through anything and everything in their path. Gigantic ravens, their feathers a razor sharp hail of death to all who stand in the open._

 _Great draconic monstrosities breathe streams of scorching death onto the helpless civilians. Guns fire, bullets smashing against their bodies, but for every one they kill, three more take their place._

 _Scorpion like creatures tear through the ground, ripping apart all those in their paths. In the distance, a gigantic, hulking behemoth roars it's fury, buildings collapsing under the force of its rage._

 _Monstrosities, based on the greatest predators the Earth has to offer, but created by humanity, have proven to be the final nail in the coffin humanity has built for itself, at the bottom of the hole it has dug over the ages._

 _There is a poetic irony, in there, somewhere. No one notices. They are too busy screaming, running and dying._

 _This is how humanity dies. The land splinters, and they die in their billions. Any surviving the initial impacts are torn apart by raving currents of water, swept up by howling, ripping winds, or incinerated in the fiery wrath of the Planet's core._

 _If they survive that, then their own creatures tear them apart, crush them, swallow them whole or impale them on vicious spikes. They can only watch as the destruction they have sown bears one horrific, malevolent fruit._

 _This is nature's wrath. It's vengeful power reshaping the world. Rebirthing it in fire and death._

 _It goes on forever, the roars of the creatures, the howls of the storms, the crash of the waves and the rumble of the earth. Eventually, it stops, and they go silent. The last humans cower, hiding in miserable holes and caverns, desperately hoping the creatures won't find them, that the earth will ignore their shivering forms and let them live another day._

 _In the midst of what was once a city, on the shattered landmass that was once known as the United States of America, and attached to the ground by countless tendrils, a cocoon-like sphere unfurls slowly. From within, two monsters stare out at the world, barren and bleak. There is no life, not even the smallest plants have survived the razing nuclear flames._

 _The smaller one falls to his knees in anguish. He is confused, hurt and betrayed. How could they do this? To each other, to everything? The life he's grown to love is gone, replaced by rotting corpses and deathly silence._

 _The larger one rages, vicious claws tearing through the rubble that was once a building in a blind rage. It roars in anger and pain as his talons tear through the rubble with vicious abandon. He is furious, not just with the creatures responsible, but with himself. There had to have been a way to prevent it, and he'd failed._

 _Eventually the larger one ceases his onslaught, slumping slightly and panting. The smaller one does not move, even as he feels the last worms and insects in the soil below him die, radiation seeping through the ground, where it will remain for countless years._

 _They stay like that for a long time, two monsters in the remains of a broken world._

 _They are the monsters, but what of humanity? The ones who created the two of them to kill and slaughter, the ones who hunted them to the ends of the earth when they made their bids for freedom. The ones who razed their own planet, the ones who shattered the lands and killed every last creature._

 _Monsters they may be, but them?_

 _They were worse._

 _There is no time to grieve. The roars sound in the distance, locking onto the only signs of life for miles around. When the smaller one does not move, the larger one scoops up his catatonic form, cradling him in his gnarled and twisted arms as he bounds over wreckages and bodies alike._

 _Despite his incredible speed, the creatures soon catch up. The hail of razor feathers slams into the larger ones back with incredible force, burying themselves there as he uses himself as a shield to protect his brother._

 _He snarls in pain, and the noise brings the smaller one back to reality. The violence is a familiar experience, and will provide a much-needed distraction._

 _They stand back-to-back, writhing tendrils bursting from the smaller one's form, and vicious claws growing from the larger ones arms once more. Overhead, the crow-like creatures, as big as any aircraft, circle hungrily, like carrion birds eagerly awaiting the next kill._

 _The shattered buildings around them fill with the creatures. Wolves, Bears, Boars. They all stare hungrily down at the two of them._

 _The masks regard them with cold judgement, and the brothers roar their defiance at the horde. The creatures of darkness surge forwards, and monsters that were never meant to exist do battle in the remains of the world._

 _As humanity hides in fear, PARIAH and Blacklight fight, for they can do nothing else._

* * *

Perhaps he'd overdone it with the false nightmare, Alex thought with a frown.

From his experience, no human could go through an experience like the one he'd invented without suffering some form of mental damage, and at the very least nightmares. In a way it ended up in his favour, allowing him to safely explain any eccentricities or mistakes as habits born of PTSD.

However his fellows had begun regarding him with increased worry and sympathy, and had begun checking up on him more often, increasing the number of distractions during whatever project he was working on at the time. It was not a major setback to any of his planes, but merely a minor annoyance, one he'd have to confront sooner or later.

The Vytal Festival was fast approaching, but all it meant for him was a brief reprise from classes. One required a team to enter the Vytal Festival, and that was, in a way, a blessing in disguise. His combat abilities would let him win the Festival with ease, drawing unwanted media attention he had neither the time nor the patience for.

He had commandeered several spare tables from the Beacon storage, and had them lining his room, almost making a full circle. Standing atop them were several conical flasks, beakers and naked flames, all used for the purpose of some rather complicated chemistry.

His desired product was a simple one. Polyparaphenylene terephthalamide, more commonly known as Kevlar. Aura could only get one so far, and despite the sayings of many an ancient philosopher, sometimes the best defence was, in fact, a defence.

He could attest to that fact. Without his own access to an armoured state, one that he now favoured above his human forms, his combat abilities would be limited to more guerrilla and deceptive tactics, rather than, as PARIAH once elegantly put it, 'The patented charge in, fuck shit up, then charge out' strategy.

He had been only mildly disturbed when, after checking the official business directories for the four kingdoms, he'd found that PARIAH had in fact patented it. How he'd done so, Alex didn't know and, quite frankly, didn't want to know.

The door creaked open, and Ruby poked her head around the door.

'Hey, I uhhh… what are these?" She stepped through the door; Blake stepped through behind her, her nose wrinkling in disgust as she caught the strong smell of the chemicals floating around the room.

He didn't respond, instead reaching for the rack nearest to him, and extracting one of the thick vests that were draped across it. Had he been human, he'd likely have had to make a few batches to make sure he was performing the technique correctly, but since he was not, and could perform it perfectly each time without the aid of computer programs, there was no need.

"Put this on", he ordered, watching as she threw the oversized vest over her head with mild amusement, Blake looking like she was trying very hard not to snigger.

Aura was originally a genetic modification, locked within certain people, generally former soldiers and when the inevitably fell to the Grimm, their surviving offspring. It had taken mankind a long time to develop the genes necessary to tap into it, but once they had, Blacklight had thought all he'd have to do was sit back and watch as they pushed back the Grimm.

Of course, it hadn't been that simple. Salem had adapted her forces, letting them hunt beings that possessed an unlocked aura more easily. In fact, what had happened was that the Grimm were actually killing more and more humans, able to track them much more easily.

Then PARIAH had stepped in. If the Faunus were Blacklight's greatest creation, then PARIAH's was Dust, and the Power of Semblance. Incredibly complex and volatile elements combined in a concoction even Alex could never have dreamed of, had created the incredible substance powering the known world.

Semblance was one of the few things that remained a mystery to Blacklight, even after countless absorbed and assimilated abilities had been analysed for any trace of what they could be.

He knew _what_ it was _,_ but what eluded him was _how_ PARIAH had created them.

Still, his brother would not elaborate, and so Blacklight had never pushed the issue, resolving to find the answer alone. He never had.

Ruby put the oversized vest on, stretching her arms wide and looking confused.

"Uh… I hate to break it to you Hoodie Guy, but I don't think you're cut out for fashion designing", Alex rolled his eyes even as he turned back to the table, and Weiss' weapon laying proudly there.

"I'll cut it down to your size, and you can wear it under clothing if the aesthetics really bother you that much". He commented offhandedly.

"It might not be my field, but Aura is a topic I have done-", he paused to extract the rotating dust chamber of Myrtenaster and place it gently on the table,"-some research on. In massively simplified terms, it is the amount of force transferred through your body by a blow is what determines the amount of Aura you actually lose. The vest will absorb more force from a blow that would otherwise go into your body, meaning that attacks will do less damage, especially bullets and the like".

Ruby looked at the vest with renewed interest, and Blake smiled slightly as she inspected it.

"Wow, I'm impressed. Engineering, Chemistry and now Aura Biology? Is there anything you can't do?" It was meant to be a joke, but he answered it seriously.

"Of course. As I'm sure you've noticed, my social skills are… somewhat lacking. I also have a rather severe case of Insomnia, but that is irrelevant".

Ruby looked up from her vest even as Blake frowned, "Insomni-what?"

"He doesn't sleep, Ruby" Blake answered for her, eyeing him with concern as Ruby suddenly went very quiet, her mouth forming a silent O shape as she no doubt remembered the incident from earlier in the week,

"How severe are we talking?" Blake continued softly.

Alex snorted as he reached for a screwdriver on the other side of the desk. "I don't sleep, full stop, until I physically collapse from exhaustion. Even then, it'll only last for a few hours and I… I have a tendency to, well, _destroy,_ my surroundings. You saw what happened last time". Ruby looked down, and neither of them said anything.

"You might want to leave. This next part is going to get very dangerous, and there's a good chance you could get hurt".

' _What about you?'_ Ruby wanted to ask him, but she said nothing, and the two of them shuffled awkwardly out of the room.

It had been a lie. There was no dangerous work that required his attention; he just needed them out of the picture so he could focus on the bigger picture of his involvement within not just beacon, but the wider world.

Complicated. That was how he'd describe the situation. Ozpin had clearly observed the small group of students becoming closer to him once more, seemingly not heeding his subtle warnings. Among them was Ruby, one of the last humans with Silver Eyes on the planet, as far as he knew. That was dangerous to Ozpin's preconceived notions for 'The Good of Humanity'. He could follow that line of thinking, and while exactly what it was PARIAH had done when he created the gene that caused Silver Eyes to develop in a person eluded him, the power they possessed could not be ignored. The girl would undeniably be a useful asset in Humanity's future survival.

There was also the matter of the girl's mother to consider. It was safe to assume that it was in fact her mother who possessed silver eyes, if the fact that the Grimm had specifically targeted her was any indication. Very, very few creatures fit the brief description he and Oobleck had pieced together; in fact, a grand total of three met all the criteria.

That being his brother, himself, and Salem.

Since it was highly unlikely PARIAH would turn on his own creations and attack one of the last, and he himself had not attacked the woman, that left Salem as the culprit, which in itself was unusual. The Queen of the Grimm was more of a chessmaster, with an intelligence that rivalled and sometimes even surpassed his own rather than immense physical strength. That did not mean she was not powerful, not in the slightest, but in their class of beings, her physical strength was weaker than both PARIAH and Blacklight.

And since it was an impossibility that the Rose matriarch had fended off Salem alone, that meant his brother had gotten involved. Which also meant there was a high chance he knew or was affiliated with Ruby.

He scowled explosively, setting down the pieces of Myrtenaster he'd been tinkering with and rubbing a hand over his chin. He didn't have enough information to come to a sound conclusion, and he was making a lot of assumptions as it was.

He was in the dark, and he _hated_ being oblivious to important events.

There was also the onset of a slight awkwardness towards him in general, which he'd have to combat at some point or another.

Normally, his social situation would be irrelevant to his long-term goals. The minimal socializing required when he was under disguise for long periods was a necessary evil, and one he tried to minimize in case someone formed closer attachments to him, an annoyance once he moved onwards to the next target or location.

This time, it was different. His 'friends' had become important to his long term goals, meaning that this iteration of 'Alex Mercer' would have to exist as a human for a longer period of time than expected. The Schnee girl, specifically. The kind of funding her company could provide would speed up the outrageously expensive process of actually building a rocket tenfold. He could use his own, considerably large funds, but it would take time he could be utilising more productively to manage enough investments, and then… _ensure_ their success in order to raise funds necessary for it's construction.

Luckily for him, the girl and her team, along with JNPR, seemed to view him as a friend, or at the very least a helpful comrade. Meaning he could continue as planned with his original plan, the aforementioned adjustments notwithstanding.

With that thought, he refocused on the assorted pieces of weapon lying across his desk. The work would give him time to mull over the issues presented to him.

Separated by countless years, two Alex Mercers hid themselves away in their work.

* * *

Combat Class came as a welcome break, several other subjects taking a back seat for extra combat practice in face of the oncoming tournament. It gave him time to focus on the theoretical aspect of his designs, an act that brought him the closest thing he could compare to true enjoyment.

"Alex Mercer" He sighed, even as he hauled himself upwards and towards the combat arena.

"And Mr. Mercer?" He mad a noncommittal noise in response to Goodwitch's query, "Would you please stop hacking the Beacon database in order to remove your name from the roster? It takes a considerable amount of time to add it back".

He barely stopped himself from blinking in surprise. That was smart, simultaneously removing any suspicion of The Beacon Staff interfering with the database while crediting him with the act. An act that he most certainly did not commit. It was an easily believable ultimatum, and one that most of the students apparently bought.

Perhaps Oobleck wasn't the only competent member of Beacon's staff. He'd underestimated Goodwitch's intelligence the first time around.

He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

He shrugged, "I have better things to be doing with my time".

Goodwitch ignored him, as well as the wave of snickering from the students, in favour of turning back to her scroll and calling out a team name.

"Team CFVY"

Interesting. Not a team name he recognized from among the first years, an older year perhaps? They had likely determined him too skilled to continue defeating opponents in the first year, and as such had drafted an older team in an attempt to test him further.

His theory was proved correct when four decidedly older students walked through the doors and towards the arena. Among them, he recognized the rabbit Faunus, Velvet, from the cafeteria incident. Their team leader strolled cockily at their head, wearing a beret and a pair of aviator shades.

"So you're the guy who helped Velvet out a while back. Thanks for that, by the way, but don't think we'll go easy on you" She paused to peer over the top of her sunglasses at him, "Nice hoodie, by the way".

He looked over himself before nodding in genuine appreciation.

"Thanks". No one seemed to appreciate a good hoodie any more. The original Alex had been very proud of his leather hoodie.

Actually, that was probably another thing that made the geneticist an insufferable ass, sociopathic tendencies non-withstanding. One more to add to the very long list of the failings of Alex Mercer as a human being,

She chuckled lightly, "No problem, kid. I'm Coco, the big guy's Yatsuhashi, he's Fox, and you already know Velvet". Yatsuhashi, with regal, oriental features matching a folded metal arm guard, as well as a short buzz cut, responded with a respectful inclination of his head, while Fox, the one with darker skin and messy red hair, responded with a two-fingered wave, and a quiet 'yo'.

"Alex", he responded, "Alex Mercer".

He didn't know why, but he found himself liking the beret-wearing leader of their team. While he was sure others would find her attitude callous or arrogant, he found it oddly refreshing. If anything it was somewhat familiar-

 _Ah._

That was why. It reminded him of _her._

Dana and Coco looked almost nothing alike, but it was the cocky attitude and brash, callous way she talked. He grimaced; pointedly ignoring the memories that threatened to come flooding back all at once.

Focus on the fight. It will make it easier to forget. Become the cold, unfeeling monster once more. It will numb the pain.

He scanned their weaponry. Fox and Yatsuhashi's were simple enough. The larger boy carried a massive, cleaver like blade, bronzed in colour, which apparently had no outstanding mecha-shift capabilities. Fox had two blades that seemed to be attached to his wrists, going backwards behind his elbows. Definitely some sort of mecha-shift capabilities, perhaps similar to Yang's Ember Celica, with a shotgun blast. The blades looked reversible as well, lending credibility to him using some sort of elbow related fighting style, similar to the Muay Thai of the old world.

The girls on the team had less obvious weaponry. One could be forgive for believing Coco to be unarmed, but experience showed that, from the way she was clutching the handbag she'd brought onto the arena, it likely had mecha-shift capabilities and was in fact her weapon. Velvet, on the other hand, had only a camera. There was always the chance that it too had the ability to transform, but he highly doubted it. Velvet seemed like more of a semblance-based fighter, which meant he'd have to observe just what her semblance was once they started the fight.

"Begin!" Goodwitch called, the aura meters having materialised on the screen as they talked.

Immediately, Coco swung her handbag forwards, even as it transformed into…

Well crap.

The minigun's barrels whirred as it began to spin, and Alex could only sigh. Of course. What other kind of weapon could someone like her have?

He could almost see Dana, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the weapon of mass-destruction, probably whispering something like ' _My pretty'_ to it, like it was a child.

It roared to life, and Alex exploded into motion at the very same instant that white-hot dust bullets began to spew from it in a veritable cone of death.

He leapt to the side, twisting as he went to avoid the worst of the impacts. He hit the ground running, moving in a wide arc to avoid the spray. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the rest of the team for movement.

Fox began to move around the arena, no doubt looking for a flanking opportunity. His agility was likely the highest of his team, and as such it would fall on him to be the vanguard in this situation. Yatsuhashi remained by Coco, but was poised and ready, no doubt waiting to intercept any attempt by him to close the distance between them.

His eyes widened marginally as a glowing blue copy of Coco's minigun, right down to the last detail, formed in Velvet's hands, and began to rain even more bullets on his position. He acted quickly, ripping his hands into the stone of the arena floor and tearing up a chunk of earth to take cover behind. Without resorting to his powers, he had no long-range options capable of causing the necessary damage to shut down the minigun.

Growling, he picked up his makeshift boulder and hurled it in the direction that the fire was coming from. He charged behind it; even as he heard Fox, who'd been flanking around him, call out a warning.

Yatsuhashi sheathed his weapon with deceptive speed for someone of his size, and grabbed both teammates by the scruffs of their necks; hauling them out of the way as the boulder smashed into the area they'd been seconds before.

The brief lapse in gunfire had given him ample time to cover the distance, and he leapt through the rubble, fist cocked back to punch. Coco dropped backwards, and as Yatsuhashi moved to intercept him, he watched Velvet discard her copy of Coco's weapon, replacing it with a copy of the gigantic, cleaver-like blade currently strapped to Yatsuhashi's back.

Despite having no weapon in his hands, Yatsuhashi utilised his larger size, hopping upwards into a perfectly karate roundhouse kick. Or whatever equated to it in the martial art style he was no doubt proficient in. His superior weight should have allowed him to put an enormous amount of power by forcing the power to come from his hips, rather than his legs.

Unfortunately for him, Alex was a lot heavier than he looked. He blocked the kick, and then dodged round the blistering jab followed by a reverse punch that came afterwards.

He launched towards the larger boy with a knee-strike, followed by an axe kick that displayed an impressive level of flexibility. Yastuhashi stumbled away and Alex followed, spinning and ramming an elbow into his solar plexus, even as Fox's bladed fists and Velvet's copy weapon sliced through the space he had occupied moments before.

He needed to keep his opponents close, by force if necessary, in order to negate the tactical advantage that Coco's minigun provided. They likely had some sort of organized signal to break off and allow her a clear shot, so he needed to stop that from becoming a possibility.

Fox chased after him, and he launched Yatsu with a quick Uppercut Launcher, before hopping onto a single foot, and launching a kick not unlike the attack the oriental boy had launched at him earlier.

His however, packed a little more _oomph._

The 'Snapkick Launcher' was a move he'd taken a long time to perfect, and many test trials involving unfortunate Blackwatch soldiers and the Hudson Bay had been run in the pursuit of making the move as combat efficient as possible.

The air distorted as his shin impacted Fox's side, blowing him to the side, and causing him to clip Coco, who has looking for another opportunity to lay down suppressing fire. She managed to reach out and catch his leg as it sailed past, and although he flopped to the ground painfully, it would have hurt a lot more had he hit the ethereal barrier around the arena.

Velvet swung her copied sword, as it's true owner hit the ground painfully behind Alex. Alex leapt over the sweeping bronze blade and launched into a flying kick into her exposed guard. He pushed off the rabbit Faunus with explosive force, sending her tumbling backwards.

He soared over the recovering Yatsuhashi, flipping sideways as he tried to right himself. He slammed into the space Coco had occupied, the concrete splintering under his weight. Fox leapt in to take Coco's place even as she skipped backwards, levelling the gun at him, the telltale whir of its barrels the only warning of what was to come

He dodged Fox's spinning elbow, the blades attached to his wrists enhancing the lethality of his elbow strikes tenfold. He roughly grabbed the 'older' boy by the collar and leapt into the air. He watched the other boy's yellow eyes widen as the two of them suddenly ascended to a dizzying height, almost skimming the ceiling.

Alex raised him high above his head as gravity began to take hold, and slammed him downwards so he was beneath him as they plummeted back to the ground. Fox cursed under his breath as he suddenly realised what was about to happen to him.

The ground cratered once more under the force of the 'Powerbomb'. This particular technique was one of his personal favourites, mainly because it worked on _anyone_. From Greene's Hunters, to normal humans, to huntsmen and even to the vast majority of the Grimm, gravity was always there to lend a helping hand.

The two of them hit the ground so hard they _bounced_ , and he took the opportunity to grab Fox again and repeat the process, albeit at a much lower elevation. He still hit the ground with enough force to bounce once more.

So he did it again.

He was forced to abort before a fourth time, since Velvet had launched at him, ethereal copies of Fox's arm blades attached to her wrists. He intercepted her initial strike, and traded a blistering series of jabs and punches, all before they even hit the ground.

Eventually, his superior experience won out, and the telltale tensing of Velvet's muscles, only viewable through his enhanced senses, allowed him to predict and dodge where her next punch would be. An underhand punch to her ribs, partially blocked, ended up blowing them apart, and they skidded to a stop, a decent distance apart. The clank of metal armour was his warning that Yatsuhashi was approaching behind him, and he spun around the vertical slash that embedded his blade in the ground he would have occupied. He used his momentum to throw his weight behind a spinning punch that decked him clean across the face, his strength sending the larger boy flying backwards, decidedly out of the fight, similarly to Fox.

He kicked backwards at the approaching Velvet, who'd changed her gauntlets, now hugging her wrists more tightly, and clearly displaying the shotgun mechanism that was signature to Yang's Ember Celica.

She launched into a series of punches, her fighting style now decidedly changed, so that it almost mirrored that of the blonde brawler. So her semblance wasn't just the ability to copy weaponry, it allowed her to copy the skills of the users as well. Useful information.

She bobbed and weaved, her fists held close to her face in a boxer's guard, to dance around his kick, throwing her own series of punches once she got into range.

Blue light flared as her aura mimicked Ember Celica's buckshot shells, and he narrowly avoided the spray accompanying each punch. He ducked low into a sweeping kick, her weapon already changing into a curved blade he recognized well.

He handspring backwards-in order to avoid the downwards swing of Gambol Shroud's copy then had to move closer again to avoid the burst of gunfire Coco blasted at him.

They were fighting smart. They knew one hit from him would likely end the match, and so Velvet was utilising the superior speed of her peers to evade his strikes, while utilising Coco's support capability whenever possible.

He was proud, in a roundabout way. It was reassuring to know that his creations were capable of such strategy and skill, especially against an opponent like himself, even if he was holding back immensely. Velvet's abilities were a testament to how far the Faunus had developed in such a short time, compared to humanity.

Velvet leapt backwards and he followed even as Gambol Shroud vanished, replaced by the towering form of Ruby's Crescent Rose. It danced around her shoulder blades at blistering sped, spinning in a veritable whirlwind of death.

He ducked under it and slammed both his fists into her body, one into her abdomen and one into her solar plexus. That dropped he dangerously close to the red, and he grabbed her before she could recover and hurled her at Coco, already moving to follow her sailing form.

Coco, ducked to the side, hauling her cumbersome weapon to avoid her sailing teammate, who, to his surprise, righted herself in mid air and dropped into a crouch to slide a stop. She reached for her camera, and began to aim it at him.

He froze.

That was not good. Velvet's ability allowed her to copy weaponry, and as such did not take into account the original wielder's aura. It was why she was unable to use the semblances associated with each weapon's wielder.

There was only one weapon in the direction she was pointing her camera. _Him_. The real him. No amount of aura layers would hide his true nature, and the likelihood of Velvet gaining his actual powers rather than his supposed semblance was astronomically high.

He exploded off the ground at incredible speeds. All pretence of holding back vanished in an instant. Remaining undetected was vital to his continued plans, at the very least until he could locate Salem's pawns, and ideally until well beyond graduation in order to retain contact with important individuals.

He didn't bother attacking, and just let the force he'd generated slam into Velvet. He body slammed her at such a velocity; the force he exerted could be compared to a speeding train. The telltale shimmer of her aura being depleted flickered across her body, then was quickly replaced by the purple glow of Goodwitch's semblance as she stopped the girl from hitting the barrier, and slowed her to a gentle halt.

With no more teammates to get in her way, Coco unleashed the full fury of her weapon, and he leapt high into the air once more to avoid the rain of bullets. He soared over her head, forcing her to turn the weapon awkwardly a full 180 degrees to track him.

Unfortunately for her, she ended up being just a second too slow, and he covered the distance between them on the opposite side to where he'd been a second ago. Two lightning fast punches dropped her aura into the red, and the buzzer called the match.

He cursed under his breath. It wasn't just random chance that Velvet's team had been selected to spar with him, after all. Ozpin had no doubt chosen them on purpose, disguising his true intentions under the guise of pretending to offer a better challenge in the older years.

He was trying to force him out into the open, and he come far too close to succeeding for his liking. Velvet's ability was not exactly unique among those he'd seen in the past. Semblances that copied other's semblances or fighting styles were not uncommon, but therein lay the problem.

No two semblances were the same, and the specific ability of Velvet's semblance to disregard aura and only observe the weapon could prove very, very dangerous in the long run.

Aside from the exposure he'd receive, it would grant Velvet herself enormous power, and make her a very dangerous adversary. The main weakness of her semblance was it's inability to copy semblances, but since he had no semblance, copying the ultimate biological weapon would entail all of his abilities, with no drawbacks whatsoever.

As his opponents helped each other up and congratulated him on a fight well fought, he ran over his options in his head.

Normally, that kind of ability would warrant instant consumption, or failing that, simple death. However, he still had the potential risks of exposure to mull over, and Ozpin's would no doubt realise that he had been responsible for the girl's death, and would not hesitate to reveal his existence to the student body.

It would be a simple matter for Ozpin to remove his own complicity in his admittance to Beacon as well. He could simply claim that Blacklight had consumed Alex Mercer and taken his place at some unspecified point in time, which while exposure would not endanger him in any way, it would require abandonment of his current plans, as well as allow Salem to escape his grasp. That was an eventuality he could not allow to come to pass.

Which meant he was in a deadlock, and the girl had to live in order for his cover to be maintained. An acceptable loss, for now.

As the bell rang to signal the end of the class, and he left the room instantly, as per the norm for him, leaving team RWBY praise blushing Velvet and a positively beaming Coco for their abilities, and no-one any the wiser as to just how close the shy rabbit Faunus had come to death.

* * *

The rest of the week passed in a blur of monotony. Before long, the weekend rolled around and he was allowed to focus once more.

Myrtenaster's upgrade was very nearly complete. The actual design and construction had taken very little time, but what had taken longer was the series of complex and lengthy chemical reactions to produce a liquid compound that was capable of reaching incredibly low temperatures.

A knock on his door interrupted his close inspection of a conical flask, an unknown vapour emanating off the freezing liquid inside. He set it down on one of his procured tables and moved to open the door.

Outside stood Jaune and Ren, looking rather disgruntled and with a pillow tucked under one of their arms.

He had a multitude of questions, but he chose to address the most pressing first.

"What the hell are you wearing?" He eyed Jaune's blue onesie with a sense of genuine respect for the boy. Very few people would willingly wear such a horrific article of clothing, a list that included his brother. It required either an immensely high or immensely low social standing, and he could guess which category Jaune fell into.

Ren snorted his amusement, clad more normally in a pair of pyjama shorts and a loose t-shirt. Jaune shot him a death glare and he looked away innocently, refusing to meet his team leader's eyes.

"Right, um… so" he began, "Yang found a monitor yesterday, and they've finally got it hooked up to the console. Then... they decided they were having a sleepover and…"

"Kicked you out. And you want to stay the night in my room" He finished for him. Jaune nodded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Of course, because that kind of thing happens _all the time._

He sighed.

"Come in" He stood aside to let them in, and they hurried in gratefully. "Don't touch anything.

"So you got kicked out of your own room," he surmised dryly, closing the door behind him, "Isn't that some sort of insubordination?"

Jaune shrugged hopelessly.

"Do you really want me to argue with Nora, Yang and Weiss at the same time?" Jaune noticed the look on his face, "Wait, don't answer that".

He set down his pillow and a thin sheet on the floor, acting as a makeshift bed. Ren set his neatly folded portable floor-bed on the ground, and observed the flasks and beaker's lining the room, some leading to the Kevlar spinning machine, other's to a series of test tubes filled with a mysterious white liquid, beautiful fractals of frost spreading across their insides.

"Are these for Weiss' weapon?" Ren questioned, sounding genuinely interested.

He nodded, sitting back down at his main desk and flicking on the standing lamp in an attempt to ward off the rapidly encroaching night-time darkness.

"Supercooled liquid, capable of flash-freezing pretty much anything in existence, including fire. I found it fitting, considering Ruby and Yang insist on calling her 'Ice Queen'".

Jaune chuckled from his position on the floor, and Ren gestured lightly to the thin threads collecting on a spinning rod.

"Strands for a bulletproof vest. Speaking of which". He rummaged in the small plastic box that contained the finished products. He pulled four out and threw them at Jaune, who yelped as he hurried to accommodate for the vests being much heavier than he expected

"The batch for your team. Wear them under your clothes or over, it doesn't matter, but what does matter is it will reduce the amount of aura you lose from hits, especially bullets".

Ren tilted his head in thanks, and Jaune looked at the vests for a second, before looking back up at him.

"I've been meaning to ask you something. Why are you helping us so much?" He held up with hands quickly, "I mean, I'm super grateful for everything you've done to help, but I was just wondering if there's a particular reason".

Alex leant back in his chair and sighed. Time to lie impressively once more.

"I don't know, actually. I've never had any friends before, and friends do things for each other, and this is what I'm doing for you guys. Plus it feels nice to do something that doesn't destroy everything around me".

Jaune blinked, and then grinned appreciatively, "Well, thanks. I can tell you that we all appreciate it". Ren sat down quietly smiling softly to himself.

"Speaking of friends", Jaune continued, "Pyrrha's been acting really weird around me lately".

He snorted in amusement and turned away, and Ren coughed into his fist.

"What?" Jaune protested indignantly.

"Are you really that dense?"

""I don't know if I've done something to annoy her, or if she's still annoyed with me about the whole Cardin thing, or…"

"Arc. She likes you. Simple as that". He slid the chair around once more and fixed the team leader with a dry stare.

He made a silent vow there and then to never, _ever_ under any circumstances let PARIAH anywhere near Beacon. If he found out that his brother, the eternally feared Blacklight, was giving relationship advice to a teenage boy, he would never hear the end of it, quite literally.

He tried (and failed. Miserably.) to convince himself that it was for the sake of his objective, and it was necessary to maintain his cover. That he was performing such a base act for the greater good of his future plans.

It wasn't working.

"You're probably better off asking Ren for relationship advice. He probably knows more about it than both of us put together". He suggested (read: ordered in a vain attempt to preserve his dignity)

Ren frowned, and he turned his dry stare onto him.

"Don't give me that. I've seen married couples less close than you and Nora are".

"Yeah, he's got a point. Why aren't you two together again?". Jaune had apparently forgotten that he'd mentioned Pyrrha's attraction to him (he didn't know if the boy was just that oblivious or willingly ignoring it)

"Look who's talking" Ren drawled, raising an eyebrow and making Jaune frown again.

"But I don't have anyone who likes me!" Jaune exclaimed, turning his palms up.

Alex's head became very good friends with the table.

"Pot, meet Kettle. You're both black". He murmured into the table, and though Ren clearly understood, and only looked amused, Jaune went back to thinking.

"Anyone else find it weird that we're talking about relationships at a guy's sleepover?"

"This is not a sleepover. This is a refugee camp, at best"

Jaune ignored him and powered on,"-I mean, isn't this what girls do at their sleepovers? Shouldn't we be talking about… I dunno. Manly stuff?"

"Yes, because we're all the epitome of manliness".

"Zip it, mister 'I can break all of your spines with my pinkie finger'"

"If it makes you feel better, the girls are probably doing the same thing as us". Ren offered, patting Jaune on the back.

"I've never been to a girl's sleepover, but I'm pretty sure that's what they do", Alex offered.

"You think?"

* * *

Meanwhile…

" **FATALITY** " proclaimed the game screen, as Weiss' character met a violent and brutal death at the hands of Yang's character. Ruby and Nora cheered loudly.

"HAHA" proclaimed the blonde victor, "You _really_ suck at this, Ice Queen. That's like what, four in a row?"

Weiss, who has lost to almost everyone so far, was apparently a rather sore loser, and chose that moment to pounce on Yang, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground.

Blake lifted her legs off the ground as they rolled past where she was sitting on Pyrrha's bed, happily reading and wilfully ignoring the absolute carnage going on around her.

Nora was drinking bottles of syrup like it was alcohol, and after each one vibrating so hard she might as well have been trying to phase through the walls and into the fifth dimension.

Yang, before she had been fighting Weiss on the ground, had been, as usual, loud and boisterous and also the only one of them who'd played the video game in question before, meaning she won pretty much all of the matches.

Ruby had never played this particular game, but had played a multitude of others similar to it, but with less violence (apparently Yang was content to let her sister wield a gigantic sniper-scythe and kill monsters for a living, but not play violent video games, who knew?) and she was happily teaching Pyrrha how to play the game.

Pyrrha had never actually played a video game, and was naïve enough to say that out loud, leaving Blake to watch as the only person with anything resembling a normal personality was dragged away and shown the wonders of video games.

Leaving her alone. Sitting on a bed in the middle of a chaotic mix of syrup drinking, brawling, video gaming, and more competiveness than she'd ever seen in her life.

It was then that Nora noticed that someone had started a fight, and gleefully dropped from the bookcase she'd been perched on top of into an admittedly impressive elbow drop.

One that knocked the bookcase over, sending JNPR's textbooks flying across the room.

She turned the page with a sigh.

* * *

"Yeah, you're probably right". Jaune agreed, a hand to his chin.

Ren looked like he wanted to say something, but wisely remained silent. The two of them made the final preparations for their makeshift beds, and as Jaune pulled the sheet over himself, he looked around, confused.

"Hang on. Where's your bed?"

"Got rid of it," He said without looking up from the schematic he was drawing, "It ended up wasting space, and I don't need it anyways".

"Ah, right. Insomnia. Got it".

"Ruby told you about that, huh?" He looked over his shoulder. Ren already had his head on the pillow, and looked very close to falling asleep already.

"Blake, actually", he admitted, then continued when he saw his intrigued look, "I know, right? Not what the rest of us expected either. Still, if you want to stay up and keep going, that's cool. Used to sleep with my nightlight on at home, that lamp's not much different".

He said nothing in reply, and before long, Jaune was asleep as well.

He exhaled. Four years. It's only four years of dealing with a group of people who collectively amount to about half of his brother's barely controlled insanity.

That may not sound impressive, but considering this was the same person who'd shut down the CCT by ramming his head through the fusebox, then set a tax office on fire before leaving on a stolen bullhead to the Remnant equivalent of Las Vegas in Vacuo, spent two hours there then came back, made a dick joke about the current Atlesian general and escaped Atlas leaving billions of lien in property damage and several very important people without their dignity.

If he could handle the embodiment of all things batshit crazy (barely) then he could handle two adolescent huntsman teams four only four years.

Right?

* * *

He had been wrong.

When they morning had come around (it was a weekend, thankfully) the three of them had gone to check on the state of their comrades. However, when they opened the door to JNPR's dorm room, only years of experience dealing with PARIAH could have prepared him for what he saw.

He had often heard the synonym, 'Like a bomb has gone off' to describe messy areas, generally personal rooms and the like.

In this case, it looked like several _actual_ bombs had gone off, if the scorch marks and pink confetti were any indication. The beds were either tipped over onto their side, broken in half (Jaune let out a miserable squawk of dismay) and halfway out the open window.

The occupants of the room, and no doubt the cause of the mess, were thrown around the room in the most haphazard positions imaginable. Yang was halfway over one of the beds, her legs sticking out the only indication that she was actually there. Weiss was in a similar position, but apparently stuck between the bed and the wall, her high heels twitching occasionally.

Ruby was face down on the floor, a discarded video game controller lying by her head. Pyrrha lay slumped against the wall, apparently thrown there by the by the explosions, if the cracks in the wall around her back were any indication.

And Nora-

"Why is Nora on the ceiling?" Jaune paused to look more closely at his teammate, "How is Nora on the ceiling?" There was nothing to hold her there, and for all intents and purposes it looked like she was just attached to the ceiling.

"Syrup" Ren provided helpfully. Jaune scoffed.

'Syrup? That's stupid…" he trailed off as Ren pointed to the numerous empty syrup bottles, lying in a messy heap in the corner, "Oh".

The three of them shared a glance, before Jaune, as the unanimously agreed most expendable of the three of them, tiptoed cautiously towards Ruby, who was the closest unconscious figure.

He hesitantly poked her with his foot, making a very visible attempt to stay as far away as possible. When it became clear that was not going to work, he bent over to shake her shoulder, shooting occasional looks upwards in case Nora dislodged herself from the ceiling and landed on top of him.

Ren and Alex shot him two emotionless thumbs up, and he gulped audibly.

"Ruby" he hissed, "Ruby, get up" The red cloaked girl groaned and he hurriedly put a finger to her lips.

"Jaune? Wha… "She trailed off as Jaune gestured widely to the carnage around them

"Oh" She squeaked, suddenly looking very embarrassed, and shooting an apologetic look at Ren, who's job it would no doubt be to clean up the room later. He did not look impressed.

Jaune moved on to Pyrrha, and began shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up, and Ruby moved to the other side of the room in an attempt to pry away the bed that was pinning her sister and her partner to the wall.

"Wait, where's Blake?" Ruby voiced suddenly realising the absence of the quiet black haired girl. Another cursory look around the room showed her to be nowhere in sight.

"I'm down here" Came her soft voice distinctly tinged with amusement from behind the overturned bed. All eyes, including the newly awakened Pyrrha's turned to the bed, and no one said anything for a couple of seconds before Ruby clutched her head in her hands.

"Oh my god! She's trapped back there!" She tried to pull the bed over, but failed in making it budge from it's position on it's side, "Hoodie guy! Give me a hand here!"

With a world-weary sigh, he trudged over to where Ruby was standing, and grasped the edge of the bed with a single hand.

"Wait no-" Whatever warning Blake was about to give was cut off as the bed was hauled over, sending Yang tumbling down onto the floor and Weiss to shriek in indignation. The heiress was the first to recover, and emerged over side of the bed poised to shriek in a fit of high-class early morning fury.

No one noticed that, because they were distracted by the fact she had no top on.

Alex hissed in surprise and turned away, Jaune had his eyes covered promptly by his partner, and Ruby turned an impressive shade of scarlet. Whatever preventative actions Ren was about to take were halted as Nora fell from the ceiling and on top of him.

"What were you idiots thinking? Setting off a bomb in a dorm room! Of all the-"

"Was this before or after you lost your top?" Alex's back drawled, looking resolutely at the door.

She paused and looked down at herself. The snickers Yang had been holding in threatened to break through as she flashed her teammate a thumbs up.

"Looking good there Ice Queen!"

He could practically hear the Heiress' face light up as she realised exactly what was happening.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH! OUTOUTOUTOUTOUT!"

He took that subtle suggestion to mean he should leave the room, a demand he was more than happy to comply with. Not a moment too soon, as the rest of the room's occupants were thrown out bodily in an impressive show of strength.

"Alright" Jaune croaked out from the bottom of the pile of bodies, "I'll bite. What happened last night?"

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?" Yang replied drily from her position somewhere in the middle of the mound of bodies, her voice muffled.

"For the record, it was totally Yang's fault" Blake answered, ignoring the gasp of betrayal from her partner

"Yang "Ruby's disembodied voice wheezed from underneath her sister," Why are you so _heavy"._

No one said anything for several painful seconds, and then the pile of bodies in the middle of the hallway turned into what was practically an all out brawl as Yang tried to get to attack her sister.

He took the second descent into absolute carnage as his cue to leave.

Some things were better if never, _ever_ mentioned again.

* * *

Summer stared up at PARIAH, posing dramatically on top of his newly procured giant mech-suit. She rubbed her eyes.

"So let me get this straight" She started, trying to make sense of exactly what had just happened, "So you stole a prototype Atlesian Paladin from the military to try and kill Zwei, but now you can't do that because Tai has taken him to post him to Yang and Ruby, meaning you have a giant robot and nothing to do with it. Did I get that all right?"

"Yep!" he answered cheerfully, refusing to break his pose.

"And you did this all in the fifteen minutes it took me to go and get groceries?"

"Well actually I stole the robot earlier today, but yeah, pretty much".

Qrow chose that moment to walk through the front door, and after realising that no one was in the house, followed the sound of shouting to the back garden.

"Is that the robot Jimmy was going on about being stolen earlier?" Had he been a more mature individual, he would have sounded reprehensive. Since he was not, he sounded unreasonably excited.

"Yep!" PAARIAH seemed particularly proud of the fact he'd sent the entire nation of Atlas into a military emergency, and casually performed the biggest breach of security since someone had shut down the CCT by ramming their head through all thirty-two fuse boxes, two of which were at the very tip of the tower.

An event that had absolutely nothing to do with him. Nothing at all. Nope.

Qrow hurriedly took out his scroll and practically bounded over to the robot, where he promptly turned around and took a selfie of it.

"Qrow. _What are you doing?"_ Summer demanded weakly, having about reached her limit for randomness for the day.

PARIAH hopped off his ill-gotten prize and leant over Qrow's shoulder to see what he was doing, where he promptly joined the older man in his snickering.

Qrow pressed send, and ignoring Summer's distinctly unimpressed look, raised three fingers in a countdown.

As soon as he lowered his last finger, the scroll rang.

Qrow coughed and straightened up, then answered the incoming call.

"Hello?"

"BRANWEN!" Demanded the positively furious voice of Specialist Winter Schnee, "DID YOU JUST SEND ME A FUCKING SELFIE OF YOU WITH STOLEN MILLITARY PROPERTY?!".

"Qrow bit his lip to repress the sniggers already overcoming his juvenile companion, and with a remarkably straight face, responded.

"No" He answered smoothly, "I have no idea what you're talking about" {PARIAH clambered into the cockpit of the robot as he spoke, and the Specialist on the other end practically roared her answer back down the scroll.

"I CAN SEE THE DAMN THING IN THE BACKGROUND YOU ASSHOLE".

PARIAH apparently did not know how to control the Paladin, and his attempts to make it move were met with what looked like pelvic thrusting. Apparently Qrow's impassive face and the hip-thrusting robot behind him was too much for Winter to deal with, and with an incomprehensible noise of fury, she shut off the call, no doubt to report to her superiors.

Qrow's mask broke, and he collapsed onto the ground, clutching his sides and howling in laughter. Summer raised an impassive eyebrow at him.

"What are you, five years old?"

The robot raised one of its appendages in.

"I'm eight" came PARIAH's voice over the speakers.

"You are over a thousand years old, asshole!" She snapped at the robot, which hastily lowered its arm.

It disregarded her and turned back to Qrow, still rolling around on the floor.

"Do you want to take some more videos? I think I've figured out how this thing actually works".

"Of course" He gasped, scrambling up and reaching for his scroll once more.

Taiyang chose that moment to arrive, and as soon as he exited the house and caught sight of the robot, whatever he had been about to say was cut off as he gasped, eyes sparkling.

"Is that a _giant robot?"_ He breathed in amazement at Qrow's excited nod he whooped, "Oh hell yes!" He practically skipped across the garden towards the robot, now prancing about in a vague imitation of a ballet dancer.

Summer buried her head in her hands.

 _Men._

* * *

 **Beat you to the punch there, Torchwick. Good luck stealing _that_ Paladin.**

 **See? PARIAh helps occasionally! Sometimes. Actually just this time now I think about it. Crap.**


End file.
